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And a selection of important articles on solar, wind, and the many environmental
issues central to our planet and our green progress.
WWW.THEDAILYGREEN.COM
COMMUNITY NEWS
Hi folks, I started my new enterprise Save The Bees Shirts.com in the spring.
Here, you will find shirts and caps and other assorted envirocentric products to wear as you wish, and just in time for your spring and summer wardrobes. (Note we have just added some fall products - Save The Bees sweatshirts, and long-sleeved T's, Save the Bees Fleece vests and workshirts, cups and a Xmas ornament with our fine logo).
I designed our logo to promote awareness of Colony Collapse Disorder in the bees, and as a general statement of environmental awareness- green issues in general.
Buy a hat or shirt. Wear our logo and in doing so Support Research and the Scholarship we have established to send a local student, or students, (it depends how much you want the products) to Michigan State University. We are an MSU extended research site.
Save the Bees also seeks state representatives and university representatives (One per university). The only commitment necessary for students is a concern for the environment and high academic standards.
Any student we select will receive 20% of their gross sales generated, for any of our products through our website, for their college education. In doing this our long term goal is to help students with their education at Universities in all states of the Union.
I hope this turns into one of those rare win-win situations. We gain some funds to support our property, nascent orchards, and wild flower gardens. The bees survive. Environmental awareness grows from wearing our products, and students receive help with their education.
Please take a look at our site www.savethebeesshirts.com and the Save The Bees Blog linked to the home page. Thanks.
- J. Matson Heininger
"WOMEN LOVE OUR FINE VESTS"
LADY SAVE THE BEES-FROM BLUE VIEW LANE
A CHRISTMAS FAN
"I was wearing my new vest so much my husband asked
Was I wearing it to bed"
SAVE THE BEES REPRESENTATIVE BEA AMMIDOWN
SHOWS OFF SHIRT AND BROCHURES AT SYMPOSIUM AT
THE WRIGHT ORGANIC RESOURCE CENTER IN MALIBU
THE INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES OF LOS ANGELES
AND THE
WRIGHT ORGANIC RESOURCE CENTER
Presents a special: Honey Bee Symposium
THE MYSTERY OF THE VANISHING BEES AND THE
OPPORTUNITY THEY PROVIDE FOR THE GREAT SHIFT
Saturday, September 27th 9:30 am - 4:30 pm
at Mary & Eric Wright’s Land, 24680 Piuma Rd. , Malibu, CA
• Do you know that 2.4 million honey bee colonies in the US have disappeared due to “Colony
Collapse Disorder?”
• Do you know that in the US alone, bees pollinate over $15 billion worth of crops per year?
• Have the honey bees become the canaries in the coalmines?
• What would our l ives be like without our bees?
You are cordially invited to attend a daylong symposium featuring special presenters in the
field of entomology and beekeeping etc.. We will examine up-to-date information on the
mystery behind the vanishing of our honey bees, what it could portend and what we can do
about it. The day will also include special DVD screenings on honey bees, as well as a panel for
questions and discussion, original art work, music, poetry, booths, and food.
During this day, we will have the opportunity to gain greater awareness into the mystery of
these remarkable species and what they can teach us about working together at this critical
time on the planet. Bee colonies have been disappearing at an alarming rate.
Register with Thea Soroyan at: 310-820-4723 before Sept. 15th
(a map to the Wright’s land will be included with registration)
Price of admission is $33. which equals the number 6
The number six represents the hexagon. In sacred geometry and numerology
six stands for love, harmony and service to humanity.
Breakfast refreshments as well as lunch will be included in the price of admission.
Breakfast from: 9:15 am–10:00 am. The program will begin at 10:00 am promptly.
The planning committee:
Thea Soroyan, Tahdi Blackstone, Mary Wright and Mary Saint Marie
• A second announcement will be forthcoming with an outline of the program, as well as a list of
the knowledgeable presenters in the field of entomology and beekeeping etc.
Northern People: Man sells bee-savvy logo wear
'Save The Bees' is local builder's idea
By VANESSA MCCRAYvmccray@record-eagle.com
EASTPORT -- J. Matson Heininger wants shirts he is selling to create a
buzz. The "Save The Bees" logo wear shows queen, drone and worker bees hovering
above a map of the world, with the continents colored in green. "This is about bees and colony collapse disorder, but it's also ... an
environmental statement," Heininger said. Heininger and wife Debra Hobohm launched the line of bee-savvy clothing in
June through their Web site www.savethebeesshirts.com, where they offer
T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and other products. They intend to devote part of
the business proceeds to student scholarships and bee research. Honeybees are disappearing in a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.
It's a troublesome trend that has local researchers looking into alternative
pollinators and working on growing native plant strips next to cherry orchards,
said Nikki Rothwell of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research
Station. Heininger's property above Torch Lake gave him some inspiration to delve into
bee problems. The land is located near Eastport with orchards close by and down
a two-track sprinkled with rust-colored pine needles. The vantage affords
staggering views of the lake and Grand Traverse Bay. Heininger, who designs and
builds houses, is finishing a home for the site. In addition to blogging and
reading about bees, the couple also offered their property to Michigan State
University for research purposes. Hobohm said they also are working to create an environment on their property
that naturally attracts bees, starting with planting wildflowers. "We are very, very small, but if everybody adds to the big picture I think we
can change the complexion of the world, and this was just one little thing that
we could do," she said. The clothing venture fits into Heininger's life as a self-labeled "third-tier
Renaissance man." He graduated from Michigan State in 1972 with a degree in
economics and spent years in Aspen, Colo., skiing. He worked as a maid in a
hotel, on a concrete crew and in carpentry. The construction experience led to
designing and building houses in this region and elsewhere. He also is a sailor,
wrote a novel and is completing his second book. "Save The Bees" shirts are printed and embroidered at a Charlevoix shop.
Business started off with about 10 to 20 pieces sold per week, including three
shirts shipped to the United Kingdom, Heininger said. If the line catches on, he would like to make enough money to pay taxes on
the property and buy some more fruit trees, in addition to continued support of
scholarships and research. "Weirder things have happened, like Paul Newman's salad dressing, but I don't
look like Paul Newman," he said.
TRAVERSE CITY RECORD EAGLE- SUNDAY OCTOBER 5,2008
CLICK FOR RECORD EAGLE SITE AND LINK
MSU alumnus works to help environment
MSU alumnus J. Matson Heininger has lived quite an eventful life and describes himself as a “third-tier Renaissance man.”
The 58-year-old Ann Arbor native graduated from MSU in 1972 with an economics degree. Along with years of travel, skiing and sailing, Heininger also has been a house designer and writer, currently working on his second novel.
Through time, Heininger has grown to appreciate many things — none more than the environment.
After he wrote his first novel, he learned he had colon cancer, where at one point, the doctors told him he may not make it through the night. A few years later, he came close to death again because of an exploding ulcer — a consequence of ibuprofen use during his skiing days.
“When you almost die a couple of times, you take stock and look at the natural world with an even greater appreciation and wonder,” Heininger said.
Heininger and his wife, Debra Hobohm, now live on a 30-acre piece of land on Torch Lake near Traverse City that has been in his family for 50 years. On his land, with a view Heininger says is unequaled, he has lots of wildflowers and fruit trees like the many orchards in Northern Michigan.
“I never really enjoyed lawns and have been aware of the problems with pesticides ever since I read Rachel Carson’s book ‘Silent Spring’ when I was 13 or 14,” Heininger said. “I began to take more awareness of nature and bees when we moved back to Northern Michigan and I started taking daily walks through the forests and orchards surrounding our property. Orchards can’t function without bees.”
After he researched why the honeybee population continues to decline — because of a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder that causes abrupt disappearance of worker bees — Heininger decided he had to do something.
“I looked at the economy; it’s horrible, especially in Northern Michigan,” Heininger said. “So I looked to start something that would help the area and make people aware of the environment, specifically the vanishing bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Much of our food supply depends on pollination. In the case of our regional orchards, the pollinator is primarily the European honeybee.”
So he and Hobohm started Save the Bees in the spring, an organization that sells merchandise with their logo on it. Ten percent of the revenue is contributed to bee research and scholarship grants.
They want to keep as much of the merchandise to be produced within the U.S. and the region, including the shirts.
“We import the shirts from Asia and the caps from South America, but for the most part we want to keep the business in the region where we live, and in the United States,” Heininger said. “We want to help the depressed Michigan economy, even if at this stage it’s only the jobs of five or six people.”
Those involved can see Heininger’s intentions are positive for the region.
“He’s very aware of and conscious of the area,” said Roger Nesburg, CEO of Charlevoix Screen Masters Inc., which prints the shirts for Save the Bees. “He’s down to earth with his intentions and definitely walks the walk and talks the talk.”
Starting an organization like this might have been a daunting task for some people — but for Heininger and Hobohm, it came fairly easy, Hobohm said.
“J. has numerous passions and a variety of issues he gets involved with,” Hobohm said. “But between the both of us, we have lots of fabulous abilities and life experiences and just knowing how to get involved.”
The couple, along with starting the organization, has allowed MSU to use their property as an extended research site — adding to the many connections the two have to the university.
“I wanted to get exposure to more ideas from younger minds,” Heininger said. “It is natural to become entrenched in our views as we age, hopefully having students use our property and do research will keep my wife and I more youthful and aware than we might be otherwise.”
Heininger uses several different marketing techniques to get his merchandise out, but writing remains the major attraction.
“I started most of my blogs in order to generate exposure for Save the Bees,” he said. “Liberals may read about the bees and our products on my leftist blog. Others in Ann Arbor may learn of them from the Haunted Wolverine football blog.”
Despite his ability to make money off of the venture, Heininger said all he wants to do is make enough money to live on.
“My goals have never been exclusively to make money,” he said “It is of course necessary and desirable, but it cannot be the final balance for an enterprise.
“Creativity is more important. We wish to give something back to students, to green causes, and make people aware of Colony Collapse Disorder in the bees.”
Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2008/10/msu_alumnus_works_to_help_environment
