A volunteer wheels in a load of mulch as others gather to build a community garden at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy on Monday, all part of the 12th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration in Marin City. (IJ photo/Robert Tong)
Torrential rain failed to dampen the spirits of volunteers who built a community garden Monday morning in Marin City.

"There was a great outpouring in a downpour," said Will Becker, a manager with Conservation Corps North Bay, the group overseeing the garden's construction. "We had 277 volunteers sign up here today."

The garden is at the Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in the Sausalito Marin City School District and will become an outdoor classroom for students and community members. Cooperation between the district and area foundations, nonprofits, service organizations and businesses has made the community project a reality.

"The main focus of this garden is to grow healthy food and share it with members of the community,"

said

Gary Gherardi (left) and William Waters assemble a raised bed planter as other volunteers help build a community garden at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy on Monday. (IJ photo/Robert Tong)
Marika Bergsund, founder and director of Growing Great Marin City, a nonprofit that promotes gardens, nutrition education and healthy eating.

The work session coincided with the 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration held at the nearby Manzanita Community Center. It attracted an unprecedented slate of volunteers, including 30 students and the entire faculty from MLK Academy and members of Conservation Corps, AmeriCorps and HealthCorps, some of whom came from as far away as Ukiah, Becker said.

Bergsund said that inclement weather, soggy clothing, deep mud and standing water did not stop volunteers from installing plant boxes, spreading woodchips and planting apple and plum trees, grapes, blueberries, currants, elderberries,

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and in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., three peace rose bushes.

Marin businesses donated everything from woodchips to plants to coffee and bagels for the volunteers.

"We even had a drummer to get the energy going and to get people warm," Bergsund said. "And about 60 children in rainboots to tamp down trails for the workers."

Started by local rock icon Carlos Santana, the San Rafael-based Milagro Foundation received a $720,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich.,

Volunteers divert rain water from the community garden at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy as others wheels in mulch on Monday. (IJ photo/Robert Tong)
last year to fund three-year projects advancing healthy food and nutrition education projects in low-income communities.

Marin City was one of four such recipients nationwide and will receive $65,000 a year initially, said Shelley Brown, executive director of the Milagro Foundation.

"Our goal was to get nutrition programs and a garden installed locally," she said.

Aside from the garden, the three-part program includes a cooking and nutrition class for students kindergarten through eighth grade and community nutrition workshops, Bergsund said.

Natasha Griffin teaches nutrition and cooking to students at MLK Academy and Bayside Elementary School and is bullish about the garden's bounty.

"It will be good for the kids to see where food comes from, the work that goes into feeding the family and the basics of healthy living," she said.

Site preparation had been taking place for six weeks. The Conservation Corps put up a fence around the garden's perimeter and DD&L Trucking of Marin City loosened the soil in preparation for planting.

"The Marin Farmers Market grew the collard greens for this year's Martin Luther King celebration, but we will grow the greens in the garden for next year's celebration," Bergsund said.

Read more Sausalito & Marin City stories at the IJ's Sausalito, Marin City section.

Contact Christian Goepel via e-mail at cgoepel@marinij.com