I’d like to nominate Dawn Beck for beekeeper of the year.

Dawn is currently our vice president and our club apiary manager, she’s also Skagit Valley Beekeepers vice president.

In the old days our club was a group of people who gathered to talk about our bees, then we started adding in person and online speakers. Dawn joined just after we secured an area for a club apiary and she has turned it into one of our best teaching assets. Every weekend in the summer new Beekeepers can come and open hives with her and get a rolling dialogue of what the hive status is, what we’d like it to be and how to get it there.

A new person can gain so much experience in a short time going through multiple hives every weekend with a master beekeeper as compared to only inspecting their own hives.

Every year our apiary is now able to sell a few hives, which has become a stable source of income allowing us to keep the dues as low as possible.

Dawn was also instrumental in the May2025 response to the bee truck rollover in Lynden. I’m not sure how she heard about it , but she was there and called out other beekeepers to help and she gave an eloquent interview to KGMI about the incident. It really helps beekeeping to have a rational voice when a bee incident becomes a news story.

Mount Baker Beekeepers has been a better organization with Dawns involvement and I think she’s a great candidate to be considered for WASBA’s Beekeeper of the year.

Thanks,
Daryl Hill, current MBBA board member