Beekeeper Recognition at the 2025 VBA summer meeting
At this year's VBA summer meeting in Bennington, two individuals were recognized as "Mission Superheros" for their foundational efforts on Vermont honey promotion.
Sydney Miller's and Ina Hillebrand's personal efforts have made the VBA Vermont Honey promotion efforts much more visible to honey consumers. Their work on in-person honey tasting events and advancements on our vermonthoney.org website are helpful to both Vermont honey consumers and producers.
Andrew Munkres applied for a Specialty Crop Block Grant for the VBA. We got that grant in late 2022 and completed the first phase of work with a media company. Much of that effort focused on branding, statewide promotion, and a special website. The Vermont honey promotion work continues "in-house" now. Since then, the vermonthoney.org website has been greatly enhanced: Vermont Honey - Simply Better.
In addition to great improvements in that website, Sydney and Ina have moved ahead with some very practical, on-the-ground tasting events in several venues to help promote Vermont honey directly to consumers.
They were recognized by the VBA Recognition Committee for their personal initiative and hard work to lay a foundation for continued emphasis on promoting Vermont honey and connecting consumers to producers. Their continued focus on promoting Vermont honey, over time, will put Vermont honey on more and more consumers' shopping lists.
Fred Putnam presented their Mission Superhero hive tools on behalf of the VBA Recognition Committee.