What’s BEEhind BEEGrrl?

A BEEGrrl emerges from the corporate hive:

In June of 2008, Melanie Coates and Executive Chef David Garcelon were two colleagues who shared an environmental hope and a dream for generating buzz from the rooftop of The Fairmont Royal York hotel, located in downtown Toronto, Canada.  After much study and research it became a reality when the former Regional Director of Public Relations turned beekeeper (BEEGrrl) and the former Executive Chef turned urban agriculturist joined forces with The Toronto Beekeepers Co-op (Toronto Beekeepers Collective) and FoodShare.  Together they were the first in the world to install an apiary on a city centre hotel roof. It was also Fairmont Hotel & Resort’s first hotel to embark on an apiary project. There are now over 20 Fairmont apiaries associated with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ (Accor Hotels) properties around the world.

With sixteen years of harvests behind them and thousands of pounds of honey harvested for the hotel, Coates and Garcelon have both progressed in their professional careers. They may have altered their flight paths away from their Toronto executive hotel positions, but they remain focused on beecology.  Chef Garcelon has gone on to leadership positions with Accor Hotels, after bringing rooftop bees to Park Avenue at New York’s Waldorf Astoria, and Coates continues to generate buzz internationally as The Fairmont Royal York’s lead beekeeper, for BEEGrrl retail and for other independent hotel projects.

Melanie is a long-standing member of the Toronto Beekeepers Collective, member of the Ontario Beekeepers Association, and continues as the lead beekeeper at the Toronto luxury hotel, The Fairmont Royal York.