Charlie Jeffers, a Redwood High School senior, stands by one of five beehives in his backyard in Tiburon on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
In May 2020, Charlie Jeffers was due to get his second-degree black belt in taekwondo, but COVID-19 had other plans.
Like everyone else, Jeffers had to put regular activities — in his case, a martial arts practice — aside during the restrictions of the early pandemic.
With extra time on his hands, Jeffers learned how to manage a beehive that his father had received as a Christmas gift in 2019. The hive was placed in a wooded area on a hillside behind the family’s Tiburon home.
Three years later, Jeffers, now a senior at Redwood High School in Larkspur, and his father have five active beehives and have sold 350 pounds of honey to friends and family. The sales of $5 or $10 jars of Stars of the Earth Honey have raised about $2,000, all of which they have donated to SchoolsRule-Marin, an organization that promotes educational equity.
“It’s been great to spend time with my dad, to be in nature and to learn about bees, which are awesome creatures,” said Jeffers, 17.
SchoolsRule-Marin, which was founded in 2011, raises money for enrichment programs such as art, music, technology and health. The campaign collects about $700,000 to $1 million a year, which is distributed to the volunteer parent foundations at each Marin school district.
The money is divided on an equal per-student basis among Marin’s school districts based on enrollment, not on the community’s wealth or local real estate values.
“I chose SchoolsRule because of the work they’re doing to broaden access to education, which is something I’m really passionate about,” Jeffers said.
Trisha Garlock, the executive director of SchoolsRule-Marin, said she was “so touched when I heard that Charlie had decided to donate the proceeds from his honey sales to SchoolsRule in support of all of Marin’s public schools.”
“What an exceptional young man to have recognized the importance of helping others at such a young age,” Garlock said in an email. “He should serve as an example to us all!”
Ken Lippi, senior deputy superintendent at the Marin County Office of Education, said SchoolsRule has traditionally focused on supporting literacy, the arts and technology programs. Since the pandemic, he said, the money is also going toward school health centers and libraries.
“This kid is just so special,” Lippi said of Jeffers.
John Carroll, the Marin County superintendent of schools, said the donation “also speaks to SchoolsRule’s standing as a reliable partner in ensuring great outcomes for Marin County students.”
Jeffers also runs another charitable enterprise he started during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Lego recycling operation called Pass the Bricks. He and about two dozen volunteers collect used Lego pieces, sanitize them and sort them into new sets that they create with design software.
“We offer door-to-door pickup in the Bay Area, and to reimburse postage for Lego bricks that are shipped to us,” he said.
Then the group packages the new Lego sets into boxes, adding assembly instructions and a photo of the completed project on the box covers.
“I’ve been building with Lego since I was 4 years old,” Jeffers said. “It’s always been one of my favorite activities, and something that has helped me learn math, art and engineering concepts.”
The volunteers have distributed about 3,000 sets to youth nonprofits. The recipients have included the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin and a refugee family resettlement organization in San Francisco.
Jeffers has created a herd of 55 Lego cows that inhabit the family’s dining room table, plus a couple of Lego sheep.
“Building with Lego has helped me focus and navigate stress, shyness and the challenges of the pandemic,” Jeffers said. “I’ve been so lucky to have access to this type of learning and play tool, and realize that a lot of kids don’t.”
He said recycling the used Lego bricks also helps keep them out of landfills and thus helps the environment.
Jeffers and his father Crockett are hoping to expand the effort to other cities to help youths in communities where families may not be able to afford new Lego products.
Crockett Jeffers said he helps out with both the honey sales and Lego distribution operation, following his son’s lead.
“Legos have been his love his whole life,” Crockett Jeffers said. “It’s fun to see him share that with kids.”
He said he has joined the 300-member Marin County Beekeepers group and has continued to deepen his fascination with the tiny pollinators. He said each hive, which could have up to 80,000 bees, helps the environment by adding more insects to pollinate native plants.
“Each queen lays about 1,000 eggs a day,” he said.
The Jefferses check the hives regularly to make sure the “brood,” where the eggs are laid, and the honeycombs are in proper balance.
“All five hives are pretty healthy right now,” Charlie Jeffers said.
Both father and son stay suited up from head to toe around the hives, and they said they no longer worry about getting stung. They also attest to the calming effect of working with the bees and watching them come and go in their ordered network of feeding, pollinating, procreating and honey-producing operations.
“On the days when I have time, it’s kind of a real nice thing to take my mind off of things,” Charlie Jeffers said. “I don’t know if meditative is the right word, but it’s definitely very relaxing.”
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