OXFORD – The Child Health Center has received a grant from the Frances R. Dewing Foundation in the amount of $10,000 to build an environmentally-based education garden program for the new child care and early education program.

Suzanne Jones, director of child care and early education, said, “The garden center will offer an extension to the indoor classroom. We will begin the environmental learning experience in the classroom through activities such as planting seeds and watching the growth cycle of butterflies during the spring. As summer arrives, we will transplant some of the seedlings the children grow in our new beds where the children will help care for them and learn about their growth and their interaction with the environment.

“With the help of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service master gardeners program, we will be designing a variety of areas on the grounds that will stimulate the senses, offer areas for imagination and teach the benefits of healthy eating.”

Barbara Murphy of the Master Gardeners has met with Jones and Rhonda Rackliffe, director of the special needs program at the Child Health Center, to lay the ground work.

“Now that the snow is gone and we are taking a better look at the area to be used we can draw some blueprints that will show us the best placement for the various plots and activity areas that will best benefit the children,” Murphy said.

The staff from the child care and early education and the developmental therapy staff are planning to design a pizza garden, with tomatoes, herbs and wheat that can be used to make pizza with the children, as well as a butterfly garden and trellis areas where children can sit and read.

Plans may even include a tunnel enclosed by vines to ride trikes through. Rackliffe and Jones said that “it is important to offer an opportunity for the children to experience the many smells, sounds and textures of nature and the opportunity to use their imagination in unstructured safe play. It is also important that they learn about healthy eating and the need to be active and to exercise.”

The Francis Dewing Foundation funds programs in early childhood education with a focus on New England. The Child Health Center is a nonprofit organization striving to improve the lives and well being of children and families throughout Oxford, Androscoggin and southern Franklin counties.

The child care and early education program serves children infants through grade six and offers before- and after-school care along with a summer program, For information regarding the program, call 743-7035 or visit www.childhealthcenter.org.