Honey Hoopla

Long Island Children’s Museum is encouraging visitors to bee-curious as they explore the world of bees during Honey Hoopla, a two-day celebration to encourage awareness of the importance of these little insects. Honey Hoopla is made possible with support from PSEGLI, Reworld and bee lovers and fans of LICM. During the two-day program, which is tied to National Honey Bee Day, visitors will learn that honey bees are responsible for pollinating some of Long Island’s most abundant crops including melons, pumpkins, tree nuts and berries and that the honey bee population is in danger and decreasing rapidly. Without these pollinators, we would lose some of our favorite foods such as chocolate, grapes, apples and pears.  A local beekeeper will be on hand to demonstrate how honey is harvested from the combs. A honey tasting station will enable children to learn how the color, flavor and aroma of honey differs, depending on the nectar of flowers visited by the bees that made it. Bee-themed crafts will be found throughout the Museum to highlight how we can help the bees so that our fruit and vegetable crops can be healthy.

The LICM Theater will present free theatrical readings of author Gay Thomas’ book, “Beezy County Fair: A Bee Tale,” at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Visitors can also join the effort to preserve the bees at Long Island Children’s Museum by participating in the Name a Honey Bee Campaign. A donation of $10 allows visitors to name one of the Museum’s bees and will be recognized on a visual display featuring the bee’s new name and the donor’s name through the end of the year.