Can You Dig It Volunteers

“Earn your volunteer hours while helping develop our state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary, outdoor learning lab”

Want to join our team? Email the crew chair at their email address listed below.

Classroom Garden Master
Leads: Katie Weissberg weissberg2@cox.net & Tina Coyte kmrannali@yahoo.com
Members: 2 representatives from every classroom

Job Description – the Garden Masters program is being modeled after the Art Masters program. Every parent volunteer, aka Garden Master, will be trained by a Master Gardener to: grow from seed, plant, harvest and maintain the garden. They will teach the class and teacher these skills and watch the garden flourish.

No gardening experience necessary and you can earn your TMA volunteer hours!

2 parent volunteers from every classroom needed

As a classroom Garden Master, you will:

• Attend one demonstrations lesson per month in the TMA garden about growing seeds to seedlings, planting seedlings into the ground, harvesting and maintaining the TMA garden. Sessions will be taught by UCCE Master Gardener Teena Spindler and will be one hour in duration.

• Take your classroom to the garden, for thirty to forty-five minutes, on a monthly basis to teach them the four aspects of crop development: growing, planting, harvesting and maintaining. The classroom teacher will assist you with this.

• Be the primary means of communication between the Can You Dig It (CYDI) Garden Master Committee and the classroom teacher about program details, scheduling and calendaring.

• Spend about 2 hours per month on this program

· Exact dates and times will be forwarded to you the second week of school

· 2^nd grade Garden Masters will assist four additional hours during the months of May/June when their classes are in the garden for their Lifecycles curriculum. This program is taught by an instructor from Earthroots Field School.

· 5th grade Garden Masters will assist four additional hours during the month of February when their classes are in the garden for their Lifecycles curriculum. This program is taught by an instructor from Earthroots Field School.

Can You Dig It Garden Masters
Leads – Cameron Carlen-Jones ccarlenjones@gmail.com
and Kristina Quinn kristina_quinn@yahoo.com
Members - Tina Coyte, Christina Gonzalez, Diana Spinoglio and Katie Weissberg

• Design and manage the Garden Master’s program
• Work with master gardener and garden designed Michelle Furtado to map out crop rotation locations

• Create teacher and classroom Garden Master calendars and schedules for classroom rotations

• Design and coordinate teacher and classroom Garden Master training days with Master Gardener Teena Spindler (four things to be taught: growing, planting, harvesting and maintaining)

• Communicate directly with teachers and their Master Gardeners about all program related issues

• Communicate with the Principal and TMA Organic Garden and Nature Center chair about program design, progress, challenges and the like

• Pat yourself on the back for being amazing people J

Compost Commanders
Lead: Christina Gonzalez - pritiprincess@hotmail.com
Members: Deepa Shesadri, Mamatha Athuluru, Sylvia Kim and Master Gardener Teena Spindler

• Join our team as we develop our TMA composting/recycling program

• Maintain composting tumblers and stationary composters

• Work with the Kid's Ecology Club to bring students into the composting program
  

• Help promote the Tustin Public Schools Foundation GO GREEN recycling project

• Work with Stephen Brown and Michelle Furtado to grow our expanding worm bins. They will stay in the garden throughout the school year. Worms create "black gold" that when combined with our food -crap based compost which will be used to fertilize the garden.

Construction Crew
Lead: Kurt Christy - kachristy@hotmail.com
Michelle Furtado, Jim Christy, David Spinoglio, Barry Fazio and Scott McMillin

• Join the ongoing development and construction of the garden. To date, in ground and raised bed planters, path ways, fencing, a full irrigation system, a barn and the like have been constructed.

• Help us expand and maintain our state-of-the-art irrigation system

Curriculum Cultivators
Lead: Marci Maietta Weinberg - mcweinetta@yahoo.com
Members: Emily Bauer, Naomi Dei Rossi, Sylvia Kim & Christina Gonzalez,

• Join our team as we continue to develop ecology, nutrition, fitness and garden related multi-disciplinary curriculum for every grade level

• Help students and teachers develop a plan for regularly maintaining the garden

• Help coordinate an ongoing crew of parent volunteers to assist teachers and students in garden based curricular projects
• 
  

Entrepreneurial Enthusiasts and Pumpkin Patch Patrons
Lead: Naomi Dei Rossi deirossi@sbcglobal.net
Members: Melissa Boland, Irene Alonso, 5th grade teacher Flossie Friedman, Deepa Shesadri &
Romey McCoy Design business owners Janet Romey and Teresa McCoy

• Join our team and we'll turn our TMA garden harvests into money for the school and an entrepreneurial experience for our 5th grade students. The students will sharpen their math, communications, marketing, and creative skills during their produce stand sales.

Fundraising and Donation Dynamos

Lead: Kristina Quinn - Kristina_Quinn@yahoo.com
Members: Marci Maietta Weinberg, Michelle Furtado and Duncan Millar

• Join our team in seeking donations and funding for the garden.

• Help us develop partnership with local businesses and organizations

Garden Gurus
Lead: Michelle Furtado - vmfurtado@sbcglobal.net
Members: Lori Shimomura, Laurie Fazio, Kurt Christy, Jim Christy and David Spinoglio

• Join us as we maintain our ever expanding organic garden: including raised and in-ground planter beds, our California Native Butterfly Garden, our outdoor learning center, and a variety of fruiting trees and the like

• Plan, promote and attend three garden workdays for our broader TMA community
  

• Water and maintain all existing potted plants throughout the TMA campus

Grant Getters
Lead: Emily Bauer - bauerroberts@gmail.com
Members: Marci Maietta Weinberg and Geri Shaw

• Help us locate and write grants for expanding garden programs, construction and maintenance

• Locate and assist in the writing of grants to cover teacher staff development for teaching in outdoor labs
  

• Help us locate funding for a teacher stipend for the Kid's Ecology Club

Ecology Kid’s Club Coordinators
Lead: Erica Vicario - ericav@sevengables.com
Member: Michelle Olsen

• Help manage the after school enrichment Ecology Club that will begin in Fall 2009. These students will take on a campus wide composting program and will help spearhead new student programs in the TMA Organic Garden and Nature Center....while getting dirty and playing with bugs.

Public Relations Pros
Geri Shaw - geri@miziker.com
Kristina Quinn, Lisa Lovell and Duncan Millar

• Help us communicate with our broader community, via newspaper articles, the Friday Flyer, email blasts, the TMA garden blog, the TMA website, and the like, about the programs and successes taking place in the Organic Garden and Nature Center
  

• Work with the Fundraising and Donations Dynamos to create advertising materials used for the creation of business sponsorships/partnerships

Tool Tamers

• Create a check in/out process for tool use

• Help keep tools in order and clean