Left Hand Laurel – Victoria Keen, Deborah Read Fowler, and Dawn Server

Victoria Keen, Deborah Read Fowler, and Dawn Server were busy bees getting together one humming hive of a festival on August 28th. The first ever Niwot Honey Bee Harvest Festival was buzzing with activities from a speaker series to a spelling bee, informational tables to retail booths, free bee antennas to candle making classes.

All of the themed moving parts made for a fabulous new festival that will live on, and for that the Courier honors these three women's creativity and hard work with a Left Hand Laurel..

"This was an idea I had that just wouldn't go away," Keen said when asked how the event came about. "And I really started researching it in 2020 over the long COVID winter. "

Keen virtually attended the Bee Boulder Festival and checked out other festivals, all the while taking notes. "Who knew there were 450 species of native bees and who even knew there were native bees?" Keen said.

Knowing Niwot's deep agricultural roots, Keen's sense was that this event would be a great fit for businesses to participate in addition to entertaining and informing the community. Holding the event in August, just as summer gardens and farms are in high gear, was the impetus to add the word harvest to the title.

Keen, with a long outline in hand, pitched the idea to a few members of the Niwot Business Association and eventually was directed to NBA vice-president, Deborah Read Fowler of Colorado Landmark Realtors. Keen had never put on an event like this, but Read Fowler has become a champion event producer for Niwot, especially with the advent of the pandemic. Showcasing the town and its businesses has become an expertise of hers.

Even though putting on a festival was new territory for Keen, she's got some serious game when it comes to being organized, thanks to an entrepreneurial background.

Keen and Read Fowler began seriously planning the festival early 2021 while snow was on the ground and very few bees were in sight. The event took shape over coffee shop-powered brainstorming sessions. Splitting up and completing the tasks was an informal and natural process for the duo.

"It's really been a delightful collaboration," Keen said. Keen saw her own super power as the ability to think through the event's details and she said Read Fowler's know-how when it came to doing a Niwot event was invaluable.

As Read Fowler recounted each of the many activities and stations that occurred at the event, she said, "We kept it so there was something for everybody."

Her prompting Niwot businesses around town to offer honey-themed products and activities made the event all the more cohesive.

Later in the planning stages the pair met with Dawn Server, a local beekeeper who with her husband Jeff is co-owner of Meadow Lake Honey. Combining Server's knowledge and connections with Keen and Read Fowler's event planning gave the threesome important inroads that led the beekeeper/honey community to join in on the festivities.

Keen said Server, who grew up in Niwot, is "one of those people that whatever you ask her to do you know you can just let her go because she's going to execute flawlessly."

In addition to being the first speaker of the day and preparing questions for the bee trivia competition, Server came up with a list of suggestions for the retail vendors and educational exhibitors whom the team reached out to. On the day of the festival, 29 booths were spread out in a COVID-safe manner from Second Avenue to the Cottonwood Shopping Center.

Recommendations Server brought to the table included tree companies, Boulder County Beekeepers Association, the CSU Extension program, beekeeping organizations such as the BeeChicas, and numerous vendors.

"Knowing how well it went this year, hopefully we'll have more groups come next year," Server said.

Sidewalks were swarming with people. Activities took place all across the venue, bringing potential customers to each business's door step.

It's hard to count a moving hive of attendees, but around 400 bee wings and antennae were handed out to kids and the beeswax candle rolling class created 50 candles, indicating attendance was high for the day's event. Close to $1,800 was raised by selling gift baskets in the silent auction, all of which will go toward future Niwot events.

The speaker series held at the Left Hand Grange was Keen's area of focus. She booked seven presentations given by local specialists. One of the most moving moments of the event was when Tom Theobald, long-time Niwot resident and internationally renowned bee expert, gave his presentation.

Keen wanted to be sure that people knew Theobald had been instrumental in helping Niwot preserve swaths of open space and that he continues to work tirelessly to protect bees from toxic chemicals. Theobald, who was Niwot's fire chief back when the department was volunteer-based, wrote a weekly column for 27 years for the Hitching Post, and now his 1,300 articles are being presented on a podcast (www.notesfromthebeeyard.buzz)

Keen and Read Fowler pulled in an entire hive of local people to volunteer: neighbors, friends, and other community members manned the spelling bee, bee bingo, and bee trivia, provided technical support for the speakers series, and created the Bee Kind Wall, a backdrop for Instagram photos and a spot to leave thoughtful messages. Local artist Jane Leland Langdon created the perfect festival logo adorning all of the handouts and tee shirts.

Read Fowler's summarization of the event was that "people are very passionate about honey and bees. When you see people having a good time, it's always worth it,"

Keen is reluctant to accept the title of queen bee because she sees herself as more of a worker bee. A lot was learned this first year and there are new ideas already percolating for next year's event. Focusing on bees really opens your eyes to the natural world, Keen said. Getting the next generation involved and curious will be of utmost importance, so she's hoping for more children's activities in 2022.