Story and photos by: Vivienne Pearson
Byron’s Katia Bee Project received a $25,000 funding boost last night (Thurs 24 November) from the Northern Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF) at their Tweed Heads grants ceremony.
This year the NRCF has given away over $130,000 in grants to 22 different community organisations. The total amount donated by the NRCF over the last 12 years is over $1 million.
The winner of the major $25,000 grant is a Byron Shire organisation – Katia Project Inc, who auspice the Byron Bay Herb Nursery. The grant is for a new project; the Katia Native Bee Youth Employment Project. The idea is for Indigenous youth and young people with a disability to gain skills in carpentry and bee-keeping through the manufacture of beehive boxes and farming of native bees.
The beehives will be sold or leased to community members and those in the horticultural industry, for both honey production and the pollination of food crops, especially nut trees.
The idea for the project came from Leeanna Jenkins, a staff member of the nursery. Leeanna is one of 23 staff at the Byron Bay Herb Nursery, 16 of who have a disability. The nursery’s main business is growing and selling herbs in signature purple pots. An additional social enterprise focusing on composting, which has been in operation for three years, is the model on which the new project will be based.
Leanna’s boss, General Manager Nick Thom, applied for the grant. ‘We feel extremely privileged to receive the large grant,’ says Nick. ‘There are so many charities doing great work.’
Other local organisations to benefit from last night’s NCRF grants include Byron Youth Service (a program for ‘at risk’ women at Mullumbimby High School), Byron Youth Theatre (performance and workshop exploring youth suicide), Shaping Outcomes Byron (development of support material for the new picture book Fergus and Delilah) and The Shift Project Byron (training and work experience for disadvantaged women).
If you’ve picked up a theme of overcoming disadvantage, you’re on the money. NRCF is an independent philanthropic foundation dedicated to improving the lives of those most in need of support. NRCF Chair, John Callanan says: ‘A lot of people say we live in paradise here…but the reality is that the Northern Rivers is statistically above average in many areas of disadvantage.’
The Foundation is set to continue its mission as it only gives away profits from investments each year. Its ‘nest egg’, already over $1 million, is growing, largely thanks to bequests. This will allow the NRCF to continue ‘bee-nifitting’ the community into the future.
www.nrcf.org.au and www.byronherbs.com.au
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