CHICAGO, February 8, 2012 - What do fresh starts and airports have to do with each other? Plenty, when it comes to O'Hare International Airport and its beehive farm.

Several Chicago ex-offenders have had new beginnings by working at the O'Hare 28-beehive apiary, created last year on unused airport property -- the first apiary at a U.S. airport. The workers harvest honey from airport bees that is made into skin care and other products.

Their heart-tugging stories of lives turned around were feted on Tuesday at the Seventh Annual Sweet Beginnings Tea fundraising event held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago. The celebration, hosted by ABC7 anchor Hosea Sanders, was marked by joy, hugs and occasionally tears as the audience was reminded of the wisdom and humanity of giving ex-offenders another chance.

The O'Hare apiary jobs program was created from a partnership between the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) with Sweet Beginnings, a division of the NLEN that manufactures and sells the beeline� bath and body products. The apiary produced an incredible 1,200 pounds of honey last year.

Sweet Beginnings CEO and NLEN Executive Director Brenda Palms Barber, left, and CDA Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino

CDA Commissioner Rosemarie S. Andolino joined the festivities and was one of several individuals honored during the program. Commissioner Andolino and Chicago Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Commissioner Evelyn Diaz both received "Creating a Community That Works" awards for their departments' work with ex-offenders. Andolino was joined at the event by Amy Malick, CDA Deputy Commissioner, Sustainability; Erin O'Donnell, Managing Deputy Commissioner, Midway Airport; and David Robbins, Project Administrator for the O'Hare Modernization Program.

Andolino thanked Sweet Beginnings CEO and NLEN Executive Director Brenda Palms Barber, who lent her vision to helping O'Hare become the first bee-friendly airport in the country, for the chance to involve O'Hare in such an important project that has touched and will continue to positively affect so many lives.

Because of the partnership with the CDA, Sweet Beginnings was able to hire six clients. The training and work experience they received allowed them to transfer to positions in manufacturing, food service, distribution, warehousing, hospitality and customer service. Sweet Beginnings operates an apiary in North Lawndale at Wilbur Wright College in addition to the apiary at O'Hare.

Michael G. Kramer, Treasurer, NLEN, presents the "Creating a Community That Works" award to Commissioner Andolino.

"We're so pleased that this program will be able to continue and provide jobs skills to new workers in the future," said Andolino. "We look forward to another great year of honey production in 2012 and for many years to come. Under the leadership of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, we will continue to set new goals and explore new opportunities at Chicago's airports to go green and help enhance the lives of Chicago residents."

The program featured inspirational speeches from Dr. Gail C. Christopher of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on the need to address racism in society as it affects individuals' abilities to professionally succeed, as well as moving testimonials from Joseph Jones, a Sweet Beginnings team leader, and Tiffany Chinn of Urban Ponics, a Chicago hydroponic garden that provides urban communities with fresh produce, both ex-offenders who turned their lives around.

To learn more about NLEN, visit the Network's web site at www.nlen.org. To learn more about the O'Hare bees and other CDA sustainability initiatives, check out the CDA's 2011 Sustainability Report.