Those driving past the Vicksburg Municipal Airport probably aren’t expecting to see a garden growing right off Highway 61 South, and — even more surprising — a bright green multi-humped dragon greeting the garden’s visitors.

And it’s not just any bright green multi-humped dragon. It’s a dragon made from donated tires and paint with support spanning across the Vicksburg, Karen Frederick, with the Vicksburg Community Garden, said.

“It has not just been one person, one organization, the community has really come together for the green dragon project,” Frederick said. “Kids, when they come to the garden, it’s fascinating for them to see it but to take part in it adds (to the experience).”

The group who worked on the dragon from the end of June until two weeks before school consisted of fifteen boys under the direction of counselor Maurice Taylor with the United Way’s Vicksburg Family Development and additional children from The Village Learning Depot across the highway.

The painting and positioning of the dragon kept everyone busy for the last month of summer, Frederick said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to with the kids back in school,” she said.

She said she found the idea for the dragon, which was an end of the summer project for the children who regularly visit the garden, from Pinterest, and secured donated tires from the Firestone Complete Auto Care on Clay Street and Tri-State Tire of Vicksburg on Washington Street with the local Home Depot supplying paint.

“It’s not something that was that expensive to do, and it’s an attractor to the garden,” she said.

The children painted the tires, and with help from South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson, the city of Vicksburg helped dig the tires, which form the dragon’s humps, into the ground. As for the head and tail, Cathy Watts of Tallulah lent her time and talents.

“I’m a Disney fanatic and a child at heart,” Watts said. “I told (Frederick), ‘If you can get me a picture, we can do it.’”

And they did.

The boys, who gathered Wednesday to commemorate their accomplishment at a small photo session at the community garden, agreed before eating snacks donated from the Tomato Place that painting the dragon was more fun than helping dig the holes for it.

“We had a lot of fun,” said Padre Gray, 11, of painting the dragon.

His brother, Ashe’ton, 9, said, “We learned to work together as a team.”

Ashe’ton said the rain helped keep things cool and only slowed them down a few times while painting the green, his favorite color, onto the tires. “Once the rain stopped, we just kept painting.”

Frederick expressed her thanks to all who made the project possible saying, “It has been a coming together.”