Happy new year + team highlights!

Hello friends! We hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday season and are looking forward to the new year. While this past year had its uncertainty, challenges, and difficulties, one of the things that gives us hope for the new year is our wonderful team and staff. Without our board members, executive team, teaching staff, volunteers, donors, and the support of our community, we would not be where we are today. 
Though we have had some setbacks riding 2020 waves, we are hopeful that we will be able to run our Family Nature play class in the summer. As most of you know, the class is free, and is for both parents and children to play and learn in nature. This was the program that started Barnacles and Bees, and is the core of what created our team’s vision. The team focus that is present in Barnacles and Bees gives us a strong foundation to set our goals and work together to meet them, and with that mindset, we have hope for 2021. 

The importance of teamwork is one of the things that we strive to teach during the program; emphasizing the value of sharing, and being a strong team member to our students. Our staff are not the only team members that make Barnacles and Bees; the children are an integral part of that team as well. Watching how well the students have braved this past year has been remarkable. We could not be more proud of how they have responded to the changes such as wearing masks, social distancing, and being separated into smaller groups at the program. 

It truly was a team effort from every single person involved with Barnacles and Bees to help get us back on our feet. We would like to take the opportunity to thank our Board; Krystal Meiners (Board President), Laura Ryser (Board Treasurer), Trae Whitehead (Board Secretary), Katie Swanson (Board member), Allyson Baker (board member) and our Executive team: Cyrielle Willa (Executive director) and Robin Cockrell (Director of education) as well as our Teaching Team: Reanne Rossi & Jamaal Ali, and our assistant teachers, volunteers and parents that helped get us through this year. 

As we reflect and say goodbye to 2020, we are filled with gratitude for our wonderful team and are excited to see where 2021 takes the growth of Barnacles and Bees.