ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The skies were clear and mild weather greeted festival goers on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the annual Honeybee Festival, hosted by the Central Baldwin Education Foundation.
For the eight straight year the festival is a fundraiser for the Central Baldwin Education Foundation, which also ran its Honeybee 5K and 1-mile run/walk for the 10th straight year.
Traditionally held the first Saturday in October, the festival was rescheduled following the threat of a storm in 2017 to coincide with Robertsdale’s Christmas Parade, which is held the first Saturday in December.
Last year’s festival was moved to the gym at Robertsdale High School because of the threat of severe weather. This year’s festival was the first in the newly renovated and reopened Honeybee Park.
In addition to regular vendors, school clubs also had vendors set up. The U.S. Marines collected Toys for Tots for the Robertsdale High School Junior ROTC and a variety of honey vendors were on hand to ply their wares.
Lite Mix 99 conducted a live remote broadcast from the festival and the University of Mobile choir performed, along with Bruce Smelly, Cody Green, the Rosinton School choir and the John Hart Trio.
This year’s festival also featured not one, but two Honeybee Queens, Little Miss Honeybee Caroline Taylor and Young Miss HoneyBee Portia Hollis, and the Queen’s Court, Adalyn Lyles, Audrey O’Conner, Emma Kate Lynn, Jorja Corrino, Lucy Delana Stefskal, Augusta Ray Pepperman and Kinley Reese Hermecz. The Queens and their court were crowned at the PZK Hall in October.
The Central Baldwin Education Foundation was organized in 2008 to encourage academic excellence in the Central Baldwin area schools by providing funding which is not available through traditional local, state or federal sources.
The Foundation provides opportunities for teachers and staff to develop innovative projects through grants; to invest in programs and enrichment activities that have a positive impact on student success; to encourage a continued interest in and support of public education through a network of businesses, individual and community involvement; and to seek and cultivate funding sources for educational excellence.
CBEF serves the South Baldwin Center for Technology, Robertsdale High School, Central Baldwin Middle School and five feeder elementary schools, including Elsanor, Rosinton, Loxley, Silverhill and Robertsdale.
