How Hives for Heroes supports veterans

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Many veterans leave service and find themselves feeling lonely and unsure of what to do with their free time but one organization in Rapid City is hoping to give them a hobby that not only gives veterans something to do with their hands, but meet a community of like-minded people as well.

Hives for Heroes is a national organization that just formed a chapter here in Rapid City last year. Since then, the group has gone from two mentors and a few veterans to five mentors and 15 veterans, nearly tripling in size after just one year.

The aim of Hives for Heroes is to pair veterans with mentors to teach them about the hobby of beekeeping with the ultimate goal of having the veterans become mentors themselves when they are ready. This is a three-year process with the first year dedicated to learning the hobby from a mentor.

“But working with someone who’s actually been through it and teaches you how the hives work and that whole process and a whole society of bees and you do this throughout several years and the third year hopefully you understand what’s going on and then really the bees are teaching you what needs to be done and we all work together to try to help each other to help the bees grow and do better and for us too,” Dean Henderson, one of the veterans in the program said.

Those interested in becoming part of this bee family can find a link to their page here.

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