The fourth annual Youth Agricultural and Health Extravaganza Day is coming to Vicksburg’s Community Garden Saturday, March 23, and event organizer Linda Fondren — founder and director of Shape Up Mississippi — said she is excited to see what this year’s installment brings.

“Shape Up Mississippi owns Catfish Row Museum and it also is in partnership with the City of Vicksburg and Alcorn State University on the community garden located out at the airport,” Fondren, who also serves as executive director of Catfish Row Museum, explained. “We have had that project for probably about seven years now.”

As next week’s event approaches, Fondren said it is bittersweet, as the late Vicksburg Alderman Michael Mayfield, who passed away March 11 after a brief battle with cancer, was instrumental in helping the organization find its location.

“It was Alderman Mayfield who helped us find the property that we needed to all become partners,” she said. “But, we have many events and this is our fourth annual agricultural health extravaganza.”

Saturday’s event will take place from 10 a.m. until noon at the garden’s location at 5855 U.S. Highway 61 South, will be free to
the public and will include presentations, workshops, demonstrations, games and educational sessions.

Fondren said this year’s sessions will include: college opportunities in agriculture; drones in schools/agriculture; healthy nutrition and cooking demonstrations; farm- ers market activities; container gardening and planting workshops; nutrition education; animal husbandry; ATV/farm equipment display; farm safety demonstrations; and financial management workshops, among others.

Health screenings, bounce houses and other children’s games, and smoothie making sessions will also be available.

“This is National Ag Week and the last day is Saturday (March 23),” Fondren said. “So we are having our event on that day.”

Additional sponsors for this year’s extravaganza include the Alcorn Extension Program, the United Way of West Central Mississippi, In Touch Community Services, Inc., USDA-NRCS, International Paper, and E&L Development Foundation.