FAIRHOPE, Ala. — If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity that involves gardening and educational programs, the groundbreaking next month for a “youth garden” at the Fairhope - Point Clear Rotary Youth Club will give you a chance to help plant the seeds for this venture and then help grow the project as it sinks its roots in the community.

“On Saturday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m., the groundbreaking and building of the youth garden’s first raised beds will occur at the Rotary Youth Club at 15129 Young St.,” said Debbie Calhoun, of the Baldwin County Master Gardeners and the Local Food Production Initiative. “Everyone in the community is invited to attend and assist in the construction of the raised bed and planting of winter vegetables. The work day will culminate with a cookout for those who participated in the project.

The youth garden is a joint-project of the LFPI, BCMG, Fairhope Garden Club, Rotary Youth Club, and the city of Fairhope, she said.

“The project is funded with part of a $5,000 grant received by the LFPI from the Gulf Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council,” said Elaine Snyder-Conn, chair of the community gardens committee of the LFPI. “We’ll use up  to $1,000 for this youth project, with the rest going to help establish a community garden in another part of town.”

The grant program is sponsored and funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, but donations, supplies and in-kind support have also been forthcoming for the youth garden, she said.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to help develop a curriculum for the (youth garden), using the existing Junior Master Gardeners program materials, as well as from the American Community Gardening Association,” Calhoun said. “This (youth garden) project, the first of its kind in Fairhope, will exemplify the mission of the BCMG.”

Calhoun said she will attend a one-day workshop conducted by the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service in Mobile on Dec. 9; it is designed to help volunteers develop a curriculum for young gardeners that can be used in places like the new Fairhope youth garden.

Snyder-Conn has been one of the active volunteers at the LFPI with an entrepreneurial green thumb to make the youth garden a reality.

“We visited numerous community community gardens and food production sites,” she said of her visit recently to a Food Summit in Birmingham with LFPI member Jo Ann Wettlaufer to learn about such established programs and how to best get theirs started. “Many of those projects had such wonderful support from the city of Birmingham.”

For more information about the youth garden, contact Ed Lawrence with LFPI at 928-4646 or edfairhope@bellsouth.net.

For information on the “Developing a Youth Gardening Program” workshop, contact Doyle Keasal at 334-844-6398 or Luci Davis at davislg@aces.edu. The workshop is free, but there is a $10 charge for lunch (or bring your own), and will be held at the Jon Archer Agricultural Center, at the Mobile County Cooperative Extension Office, 1070 Schillinger Road N., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 9.