Celebrating our Queen Bee Award Winners on World Bee Day!

It's World Bee Day!

Bees of all kinds are so important to our everyday lives - their tireless pollination services provide us with all kinds of food and they boost biodiversity and ecosystem health as well. Without them, well, our lives would be very very different.

So too with the amazing women we honored with Queen Bee Awards at our April 25 Spring Conference at Sentry World in Stevens Point. These women are tireless workers for their communities, the cause of conservation, and the work of earth care. We appreciate them so very much. We also appreciate our partners at the Xerces Society, who were the generous sponsors for our Queen Bee Awards this year, which included a gift of Wisconsin-harvested honey with a framed certificate.

The awards were presented by Margaret Krome, Policy Director at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and one of the the founding thinkers behind the Wisconsin Women in Conservation project, and Alanna Koshollek of Renewing the Countryside, WiWiC West Central and South West Region Coordinator.

Our 2025 Queen Bee is Hinu Helgesen Smith. She is the first Executive Director of the Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Agriculture, and a long-time advocate for healthy food access, tribal food sovereignty, and conservation agriculture. Hinu is a former Ho-Chunk legislator with a professional background in community health and diabetes prevention in a high risk population. She is committed to renewing Ho-Chunk agriculture and food ways, improving tribal members' health outcomes through fresh, local, healthy, regeneratively grown, and culturally relevant food. Much of the food grown at the Ho-Chunk Nation’s farm, Whirling Thunder Organic Farm, is given away to the community.

Please see the amazing webinar Hinu presented for us in November 2024 on the Past, Present, and Future of Ho-Chunk Agriculture. WATCH NOW

The rest of our awardees are Hive Connectors - this award honors the ultimate networkers, inspiring examples of bringing women together in conservation. They are the people everyone goes to for information, and we count on them so much.

Pa Thao is a WiWiC Conservation Coach who runs Maiv Flower Farm with her mom Mai Xee Ziong outside of Eau Claire. Read and listen to their wonderful StoryCorps interview HERE. Pa is also the Executive Director of Black and Brown Womyn Power Coaltion and the founder of Power Up Eau Claire. She's a tireless advocate for Hmong culture and agriculture, while working across various sectors to lift the entire community. Watch her incredible WiWiC Education Network webinar presentation HERE.

Shelley Mathews is a the founder of FullCircle26, a full-service platform that provides sales, distribution, and client support for AgTech and STEM/STEAM manufactures and brands. The company has grown by double-digits and will celebrate its 8th year with over $2 million gross sales. The company has been recognized by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families for its innovative use of hydroponics to teach agriculture and life skills through growing plants. 

Christine Klessig is a WiWiC Conservation Coach, forest steward, and mushroom forager in Portage County. Christine and her late husband implemented five different conservation plans on their 127 acre property. That hasn't stopped her from recently securing an additional  conservation assessment through WiWiC. Her formal education includes a BS in Environmental Management and a JD in law. She enjoys passing on her love of the land to her five grandchildren and other kindred spirits.  

Una Van Duvall is an artist, activist, and organizer in Milwaukee with deep roots in Los Angeles. She also has a uniquely powerful history as a Kansas farm girl who still co-manages ag lands in the historic settlement of Nicodemus - a frontier community established by African Americans at the end of the Civil War - where she and her relatives continue to organize the famous Nicodemus Homecoming. Una is board chair of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. Listen in to Una and her daughter Ife interviewed on the Queen Bee Sessions podcast.

Melissa Schlupp manages land conservation staff and oversees the land conservation services of the Sauk County Land Resources and Environment Department. She also works closely with participants in the Farmland Preservation Program and assists farmers with nutrient management planning on their operations. Prior to joining Sauk County in 2013, Melissa worked with various state, federal, and nonprofit organizations assisting private landowners with establishing wildlife habitat and conservation practices on their land.

Joey Esterline is a WiWiC Conservation Coach and farms outside of Sparta at AlterNative Grounds. She founded the Sparta Farmers Market over 30 years ago and continues to vend there. She's a Monroe County Board Supervisor. Joey and her partner Scott Giraud won the Monroe County Conservationists of the Year Award in 2024 and it's easy to see why! Watch Joey talk about native plant choices for urban gardens in this wonderful video produced just this spring by the Sparta Community Gardens Land and Water Partnership.

Just seeing these amazing women gathered all together with 100 other amazing conservation-minded women in one room in Stevens Point was quite mind-blowing. Look for the full recap soon in The Buzz newsletter for May.

WiWiC wishes to thank ALL of the conference sponsors for an incredible, inspiring, life-giving, and soul-nourishing event. See you soon at a potluck or learning circle near you! We're starting to build out our 2025 event schedule and kicking off with a three-part series of prairie visits focused on Co-Establishing Community and Pollinators in South East and South Central Wisconsin. This will be worth traveling to experience! But we've got events coming up soon in other regions as well. Stay up to date by following us on Insta and Faceboo, but also periodically CHECK EVENTS.

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