For Patrick Curry, working with honeybees became a welcome break from the intensity of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Curry participated in a beekeeping program offered to veterans receiving care at the VA facility in White City. Run by the Southern Oregon nonprofit Cascade Girl, the program gives veterans hands-on experience tending hives and opportunities to continue beekeeping after leaving the program.
Curry, a military veteran who spent about two and a half months as an inpatient in the PTSD program, said he initially had some fear about working around bees. But he came to find the experience calming, comparing the sense of peace to what he has experienced while skydiving.
“Before I got involved with the beekeeping program and the PTSD treatment down there, I was just existing,” Curry said. “Now, I’m starting to live.”
Cascade Girl President Sharon Schmidt said the idea for the program emerged in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had curtailed many activities.
“We were all basically at home doing not too terribly much," Schmidt said. "That's when the idea really occurred that this would be a great project for when we started opening up communities again."
The program has since expanded to provide participants with bee boxes and connections to local beekeeping clubs, so they can continue the activity.
Cascade Girl describes beekeeping as a potentially healing activity, but Schmidt has also written that its therapeutic benefits have not been scientifically established. Research documenting outcomes from such programs remains limited.
Cascade Girl will highlight its veterans program at the Oregon Honey & Mead Festival on Aug. 29 at Edenvale Winery in Medford. The annual fundraiser supports the nonprofit’s work with veterans and other educational programs.
The festival will include honey tastings, music, activities for children and presentations about pollinators and beekeeping. Representatives of Cascade Girl’s veterans program and the VA will also speak about the project.
For Curry, his experience with the program has had a lasting impact.
“It's the best thing I've ever experienced and something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” Curry said.
Event
- The Oregon Honey & Mead Festival is scheduled from noon to 5:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at Edenvale Winery, 2310 Voorhies Road in Medford. Children are admitted free with a parent. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
Guests
- Sharon Schmidt, founder and president, Cascade Girl
Patrick Curry, military veteran
