Roberto Clemente Stadium Bee Rescue

Today we were involved in a bee rescue with the Roberto Clemente baseball stadium in Carolina. This was quite an exciting rescue!

A Legend Was Born

Roberto Clemente is a local legend and one of the most famous and possibly best baseball players to have ever originated from Puerto Rico. Not only was he a extremely talented athlete he dedicated his life to doing non profit work.

Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work. When Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, was affected by a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who visited Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake. He decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to the survivors.

A Tragic Story

The airplane he chartered for a New Year's Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane, had a history of mechanical problems and an insufficient number of flight personnel (missing both a flight engineer and copilot), and was overloaded by 4,200 pounds. It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972 due to engine failure.

Truly a Puerto Rican hero, many baseball stadiums are named after him all around the Island and his name lives on in the "Roberto Clemente award"

An award that is given annually to the Major League Baseball player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team", as voted on by baseball fans and members of the media.

With the help of a cherry picker machine we were able to gain access to the top of the scoreboard where the bee colonies were.

The inside comb of one of the colonies we rescued.

Over the course of a week and with the help of this cherry picker machinewe were able to identify and safely remove the five different colonies that had taken up residence.

They have been re homed in the bee school in Fajardo, where they will undergo observation and then we will move them to local farms where they will aid in helping farmers produce more organic crops.