Lockhart teenage beekeeper earns $11,000 grant

LOCKHART (KXAN) — Dressed in head to toe in hot pink, one teenager has created her own beekeeping business.

Zoe Seaver was recently surprised with an $11,000 grant, after successfully pitching her entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of local leaders in Lockhart.

The incoming senior at Lockhart High said this money will provide a big boost to her company Think Pink Bee Pink.

"I'm really going to use that money to invest into my own boxes, my own bee pollen and sugar water,” Seaver said.

The 17-year-old has followed the footsteps of her late father David, who ran his own beekeeping business — Hobo Honeybee — in Lockhart.

"He was my best friend, my Dad was my everything,” she said. “He is someone that I still look up to, even with him gone."

This grant came through the Lockhart Lion Entrepreneur Access Partnership -- or, the Lockhart L.E.A.P -- a collaboration between the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce, First Lockhart National Bank, the Greater Caldwell County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Lockhart Independent School District.

Lockhart ISD superintendent Mark Estrada created the community coalition to invest in future business owners.

"Zoe is doing this for all the right reasons,” he said. “To help our community, to help her family and to start her young career as an entrepreneur."

For Seaver, this money means carrying on her father's legacy.

"I know he would have been really excited to see me do this,” she concluded.

Through Lockhart L.E.A.P., Seaver will also be matched with a mentor in the beekeeping business.

This individual will help guide her, as she starts her senior year at Lockhart High while balancing being a local business owner.