GameChanger: Monica Schmitt

When her oldest son showed an interest in beekeeping five years ago, Monica Schmitt decided she would learn, too. They signed up together for a course at Carroll Community College through the Carroll County Beekeepers Association, and Schmitt was instantly hooked.

“Our local beekeeping community is amazing,” says Schmitt, now the president of the association. Her interest in bees also coincided with a dark time when she felt like her life had no purpose. “But I woke up every day thinking about my bees,” she says. “I realized it was very impactful in changing my life. It gave me that purpose that I needed.”

Her nonprofit, Mission Beelieve, grew out of that realization. “The bees saved me.”

Your nonprofit works with mostly veterans and first responders. Why those groups?
I’ve worked with a lot of veterans. You could see this lack of purpose in their life when they come home [from deployment]. They have a certain routine that they must follow, and when they aren’t there, those routines aren’t there. They needed a purpose. And that’s what we’re doing with the program.

Why beekeeping?
The beekeeping community is one of the most welcoming places. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, where you live, what you look like—they don’t care. You want to talk about bees? They want to be your friend. It’s a very nondiscriminatory place. And they are always wanting to help.

So this is beekpeeing as therapy?
When bees are happy, they have a light hum. When bees are angry, they have a loud hum. They play off your emotion. So, if you’re having a rough day, those bees will feel it. We teach veterans about the difference in the sounds and smells of a honeybee colony to help understand [how] our emotion plays into their lives. Those bees will bring them back, allow them to refocus. We don’t sit in therapy groups. Instead, they learn how to redirect that negative energy into something positive through beekeeping…Honeybees can teach us a lot. Bees don’t work for themselves—it’s for the whole colony. They work together as a whole to thrive.

How does Mission Beelieve work?
We have veterans from Maryland, but also Connecticut, Kansas, South Dakota, New Jersey, and Utah. We are education-based, so they are learning to be true, successful beekeepers. We provide them with a six-week beginner beekeeping class via Zoom. We have world-famous beekeepers donating their time. They do not get their own bees the first year. Instead, they are partnered up with an experienced beekeeper and they go into their apiaries. We have 48 mentors and 63 veterans right now.

I assume you get something out of this besides just great honey.
We launched two years ago and haven’t looked back. We are changing people’s lives and we see the impact it’s making…It’s worth every moment of tears and frustration and bee stings and drops of wax all over the floor.