December Member Spotlight: Mary Williams

Mary Williams is a retired award-winning Watauga County Educator and past President of the Watauga Beekeepers Association. She was awarded the Beekeeper of the Year at the 2017 Farm City Banquet. Over thirty years ago, she founded a program called "Parent to Parent" which connects families with children with disabilities.  Her work at Hardin Park included founding "Coffee Talk" and upgrading the school's teaching kitchen. Needless to say, she is an active member of our community and has been a member of Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture since February of 2018.  

Since retirement, she has continued to volunteer in our community's schools in an effort to educate children about our food system, with a special focus on the benefits of pollinators.  As a second grade teacher at Hardin Park explained,  "During Mary Williams' Bee Keepers program at Hardin Park, my students truly understood the importance of bees and how it directly affects our produce and us. They enjoyed getting to actually see the tools used by beekeepers and the demonstrations that Mary used to show how bees work together. Since the program, we have enjoyed watching our "pollinators" around our school grounds."

Her children's book, Lily Learns to Swim, is about how a puppy overcomes fears by using excitement. 

We are thrilled to have her in the BRWIA family!

Interested in becoming a member? We'd love to have you! Join us!