A team of six science and art students from Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock won $25,000 in the 2016 Lexus Eco Challenge, a national STEM contest that encourages middle and high school students to start environmental programs that help their communities.

After carefully studying the local environment, the team, known as the HoneyBelles, created a habitat for pollinators on the school campus in order to protect local bees. They started by using plants and flowers that attract and support pollinators, and employed a composting system on campus. To make a greater impact on the larger community, the HoneyBelles began spreading awareness about the importance of bees and pollinator habitats by creating seed packets, T-shirts, planting calendars and bee homes and distributing them to neighbors at community events.

Mount St. Mary Academy was one of four high schools that placed first in the Lexus Eco Challenge, sponsored by Lexus and Scholastic. The HoneyBelles donated the prize money to aid two organizations – Bee Cause, a grant program that stimulates curiosity in young people about the importance of bees, and Bees Abroad, which seeks to reduce poverty through beekeeping by supporting projects in developing countries.