Charlotte Hubbard

Charlotte, a beekeeper since 2008, now manages about a dozen colonies. She and her late husband Marshall routinely ran 30 – 50 colonies, with excellent overwintering survival. Michigan’s 2018 Beekeeper of the Year, Charlotte is the lead instructor for KVCC’s beekeeping program, a board member for the Kalamazoo Bee Club, and author of numerous articles and books on beekeeping, including a chapter in Honey Bee Medicine, a veterinary textbook. All profits from her writing, speaking and sales go to charities that feed the food-insecure follks of SW Michigan. Learn more at www.hubbardhive.com.

Robbyn Smith van Frankenhuyzen

Robbyn has dedicated much of her life to caring for animals. As a youngster she brought orphaned animals home to mend and when she was an adult, folks delivered them to her doorstep. Growing up as the middle child in a household with six sisters, she became the "entertainer". Her elaborate and theatrical story telling was her way of finding her own voice in a crowd.

Her parents encouraged her to make her hobby her career, so with that in mind she attended Michigan State University and became an animal technician.

She met her illustrator husband, Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, at the clinic where she worked. They raised two beautiful daughters, Heather and Kelly, and together they shared a mutual love of nature.

In 2000, the couple collaborated on their first children’s book, "Adopted by an Owl", a true story of a great horned owl they raised and released. But rather than returning to the wild, Jackson the Great Horned Owl chose to spend his entire life with his human family, living free on their 40-acre farm.

"Adopted by an Owl", "Saving Samantha", "Kelly of Hazel Ridge", and "Itsy Bitsy & Teeny Weeny" were all written with the help of their family journals. Nature journaling is a part of their daily lives and an enjoyable way to document all the animals that are a part of their lives.

Today, Robbyn visits schools, zoos and nature centers sharing with children and adults the value of journaling, the joy of story telling and the importance of protecting our natural world.

Polly Cheney

Polly W. Cheney lives in Charlevoix, Michigan with a large garden full of pollinators. She earned a B.A. in English from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. A college botany course started her journey to learn about the importance of pollinators. Master Gardener training instilled in Polly a desire to share information about seed formation with Junior Master Gardeners.

Rhyme became the vehicle to allow her to remember both the unfamiliar terms and the sequences she wanted to memorize. This led her to write the poem that became the seed for her first book, Sip, Pick, and Pack…How Pollinators Help Plants Make Seeds. The book, beautifully illustrated by Kim Overton, is intended for ages 5 and up.

Polly's second book, FOOD IN THE FLOWERS: How Pollinators Help Feed Us All, also illustrated by Kim Overton, grew out of a desire to reach even the youngest students with a positive message about the important role bees play in food production. It is intended for ages 3 and up.