LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Keith Griffith III has been stung by a bee 20 times in the past three years.
“These are all hive beetles and we’re gonna have to take some little precautions to deal with these guys,” said Griffith.
Beekeeping is serious, and sometimes painful, but Griffith knows it must be done. “I do all this just to one to spread awareness, help save the bees and possibly teach some people about bees,” Griffith explained.
His business, Beeing2gether, promotes being together with nature and the community. He raises and breeds honeybees and partners with local beekeepers and farmers to provide raw honey.
“This is what propolis looks like. Propolis is like a little glue that they produce and some of this white stuff is a little honey and stuff they’ve built,” said Griffith, looking inside one of his hives.
The 15-year-old has sold thousands of bottles of honey.
“As a kid, I was like I’d be an NBA player. I never thought one thing about becoming a beekeeper. It’s never been on my list and now I’m here, having fun doing this. I got these beings trying to kill me every day I come into this,” said Griffith.
Even more shocking for him is being named a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Awards finalist. The program celebrates the achievements of small businesses and honors their contribution to America’s economic growth. “When I first did this, I was doing this for fun and to sell a little bit of honey just to make a little money. I wasn’t expecting to be in stores to be in the UK. I wasn’t expecting this really, so I found this pretty cool,” said Griffith.
Griffith is one of 27 finalists from a pool of 3,000 applicants. He is the only finalist from the state of Kentucky. A cash prize of $25,0000 is at stake if he is selected as the winner of the Young Entrepreneur Achievement Award division and he knows exactly what he will do if he wins the money.
“What I plan to do is I’m going to look into like a little property to maybe expand to get a bigger bee farm and plant more bee hives and stuff,” Griffith explained.
He wants to expand the hobby that helped him get through a tough chapter to inspire others to find things to improve their mental health.
“Some things I can say to people going through a mental health crisis is it’s gonna be tough to get through. I came from both my parents being incarcerated,” said Griffith. “Just keep a good mindset. Always look for the positive and just do something that you have fun doing, like hanging out with your friends, or go take some walks or something, maybe do some beekeeping.”
Award winners will be announced at the Dream Big Awards on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in Washington D.C.