The Buzz for Education

Brian Peterson-Roest, SEHS ’04 and ’09, plays around in the Outdoor Adventure Center in Detroit, where he has a display for Bees in the D.

When fifth grade teacher Brian Peterson-Roest, SEHS ’04 and ’09, plays three truths and a lie as a classroom icebreaker to start the school year, his truths often make him an instant celebrity with his class: he laid the financial groundwork for his nonprofit organization Bees in the D by winning money on the game show “Wheel of Fortune”; he is an education host for PBS Detroit; and he has been honored by former President Barack Obama, receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

His list could go on, but it contains a common theme: Peterson-Roest’s love for education and conservation weave throughout his life. “I actually knew since fifth grade that I wanted to be a teacher. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to create an environment where all felt welcome,” he says.

Peterson-Roest has followed his childhood conviction, impacting lives as a teacher in Rochester Community Schools for more than 25 years and also serving as an adjunct professor at OU’s School of Education and Human Services.

Along with his passion for education and belonging comes a love for nature, nurtured early through hours spent outdoors and ultimately leading to founding Bees in the D, funded by a game show win. The nonprofit organization, focused on the conservation of bees and educating about pollinators, is currently managing 225 hives in 70 locations throughout five Southeast Michigan counties — many in urban settings — and is partnering with corporations, schools, universities, restaurants, breweries and distilleries.

Peterson-Roest’s buzz for bees got its start in 2008, when the young teacher was sponsored to take a beekeeping class through Oakland University on Beaver Island. Brimming with excitement, he placed some hives in his backyard in Lake Orion; however, moving to the urban setting of Detroit after meeting his husband put a pause on his early beekeeping endeavors. He missed his bees but a vacation to New York City would set the stage for Peterson-Roest’s eventual urban beekeeping journey. “We walked by Battery Park, which is where you can see the Statue of Liberty, and I saw beehives and I was perplexed,” Peterson-Roest says. “There are millions of people living in this city, and I am looking at beehives?”

As fate would have it, an unplanned stint on the television show “Wheel of Fortune” earned Peterson-Roest some money, which he used to start his nonprofit to focus on honeybees, pollinators and conservation. “I just thought it was going to allow me to have a couple of hives,” Peterson-Roest says. “We had a friend that owned a bar on Jefferson [Avenue], and he said I could put a few hives on his roof.” Word about his urban beekeeping spread, and soon, businesses and organizations asked if Bees in the D could install hives at their sites.

Today, Bees in the D partners with companies like GM, Stellantis and Magna, and installs hives at restaurants or distilleries that use the honey in their products. “We sell our honey to a lot of restaurants, and we do some really fun collaborations,” Peterson-Roest says. The nonprofit collaborates with Detroit City Distillery for their honey bourbon, partners with the iconic restaurant The Whitney for annual honey dinners, provides honey to hotels for tea time, and offers sommelier courses “where we train people to smell and taste honey much like wine,” he says. They also sell honey and bee-related products online. All of the funds go back into the organization to sustain the organization and buy new equipment and bees.

Bees in the D hives can be found all around Detroit, including on the roof of Cobo Hall. Photo provided by Brian Peterson-Roest

While Peterson-Roest is responsible for the hives, the organization relies on volunteers to help with some maintenance, events and honey harvest. “I am pretty much working with the bees from sunup to sundown throughout the summer, and I do a lot of driving,” Peterson-Roest says. He checks on hives to make sure they have a healthy queen and are disease-free. In the fall, it’s time to collect the honey frames, while spring is time for cleanout.

At the heart of it all lies conservation. With the dramatic decline of pollinators, Peterson-Roest uses his nonprofit to fight the decrease of bees and to educate about conservation, including native pollinators. “I always stress that we’re Bees in the D, not honeybees in the D,” says Peterson-Roest. “I really do like to educate about our native bees because they’re extremely important. They’re the ones that should be the poster child for ‘Save the bees.’ They’re the ones whose numbers are declining the most. I use the honeybees, though, because they’re manageable, and you can help educate people and get them more hands-on with honeybees.”

While managing beehives and collaborating with others is a joy for him, Peterson-Roest’s real passion lies in education. He is involved in workshops and speaking engagements, and even worked with Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan to revive an alternative to the discontinued beekeeping patch. “Through the years, we had thousands of Girl Scouts suit up to earn that patch. That’s a lot of fun — I love doing that,” says Peterson-Roest.

Over the years, his exceptional educational efforts as a public school teacher and for Bees in the D have earned him local and national recognition. In 2012, he was honored by President Barack Obama by receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, was named recipient of the Michigan Science Teacher of the Year Award in 2011 and was chosen as one of Crain’s Notable LGBTQ in Business Leaders in 2021.

“And so, yes, [education] is our main theme, and that’s what people always say: ‘I can see your passion,’” Peterson-Roest says. “I just do. I have a real passion for it.”