By providing income and active work in the outdoors to high school youth, Colton Community Youth Garden grows more than food—it grows young people.
Colton Community Youth Garden, formerly called the Flagstaff Youth Garden, is offering a seven-week summer internship that provides wages, job skill training, and leadership development to local high school youth. Eligible applicants will have completed their freshman year of high school. A partnership between the Museum of Northern Arizona and Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, the Youth Garden encourages a broader understanding among local youth of the unique beauty and character of the region through sustainable agriculture.
Located on the Museum of Northern Arizona campus at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, this historic site was farmed by the Museum’s founders, Harold and Mary-Russell Colton in the early 1900s. The Youth Garden empowers and educates young people to continue the legacy of land stewardship and sustainability on the Colorado Plateau. Interns acquire hands-on experience in ecological agriculture and restoration, the cultivation and marketing of diverse crops, and participation in community service projects at the site.
Interns will act as mentors to eight to twelve-year-old MNA Discovery program participants. During this internship, Youth Garden and MNA Discovery participants interact with one another and the landscape in relevant and meaningful ways to gain an awareness of and appreciation for the unique ecology and cultural traditions of our region. Interns will receive a weekly stipend of $86 (tax free) per week and will work 16 hours per week.
Applications can be found online at www.musnaz.org and are due May 18. For more information, please call Rosemary Logan at 774-5213.
MNA recognizes Johanna Divine, Kate Watters and Jeff Hines who were essential in starting the gardening program four years ago. The collaboration grew out of the need to provide seasonal continuity at the site and to meet the demand for summer internship opportunities for Flagstaff youth. Generous support from local donors combined with in-kind and charitable donations from Flagstaff area businesses, Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy, and Flagstaff Foodlink/Flagstaff Youth Gardens have provided a foundation of support for this project in 2007.
Individual supporters can help the Youth Garden by shopping at New Frontiers on May 16, when New Frontiers will generously donate five percent of profits from that day to the garden. MNA also gratefully accepts personal donations in the form of money, time and expertise, and garden materials. Donations are tax deductible and may be sent to Colton Community Youth Garden, 3101 N. Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.