Shelby Gallion

“We have to take care of them like they’re a baby,” Shelby Gallion explains about beekeeping.  Sweet Beginnings, LLC beekeepers make sure the bees don’t catch infections, ensure that the honey is not contaminated, feed them sugar water and pollen, check to see if they are producing enough honey, and make sure every hive has a queen.

But that’s only the beginning of his responsibilities.  Shelby also works in the production kitchen, making honey-based lip balm, body polisher, and moisturizer, all by hand.  At Sweet Beginnings, LLC, Shelby explains, “we all work together” taking care of the bees and making and packaging the beeline^® products. We help each other learn the job as well.  “I might show my co-workers how to use the machine for filling the lip balm tubes,” Shelby explains. Shelby enjoys his work. His favorite part of the job is “making sure everything is going right with the products.”

Shelby grew up in Rockwell Gardens with his two siblings and mother, who "took care of everything." Shelby says, "we had a good relationship with my father, too." Shelby explains the path he took, "I had a good environment. We were a little poor, but if we needed something we could get it eventually. But I wanted to live the fast life." So at age 16 he moved out on his own and began working in the drug trade.

With a high school degree, Shelby began to pursue a college education in engineering at Malcolm X College.  But “I was impatient.  I was doing the school thing, then hustling…things got from bad to worse.”  He ended up serving two short prison sentences and does not want to be away from his two small daughters again.  “I missed out on my family… that’s time I’ll never get back.” Plus, even though he would still like the fast money, Shelby knew his future would be “dead or jail for the rest of my life.”

At age 23, Shelby had no stable work experience and a criminal record.  Finishing his sentence at a work release center, he enrolled in U-Turn Permitted through the Illinois Going Home program, also part of NLEN.  Shelby saw that some people in the class didn’t have their hearts in it. He says “you gotta want to change.” Now working at Sweet Beginnings, LLC, Shelby also enjoys building maintenance and landscaping.  But most of all, right now, Shelby says, “I don’t want to leave this job and go back to the streets.”