The Great Los Angeles River Clean Up =)

Hi, my name is Nayeli Hernandez and i also decided to attend the L.A. River Clean Up on Saturday April 30th, 2011 held by FOLAR. It was a great experience cleaning, again. I am actually looking forward going to the third event. I did not think i was going to even want to attend to the three events, but i was wrong. It's really nice helping to keep our environment clean. I have learned to appreciate the environment little by little because I would not really care for it, before. I am careful where to throw my trash away now. for example, today at school as I was walking with two of my class mates, Diana and Gavi, I was about to throw away a piece of candy wrapper on the floor! I had remembered about my english class when I was about to throw it, so I didn't do it because it would have been the wrong thing to do. I would not have felt comfortable throwing trash on the floor knowing that I've participated to the Dockweiler Beach Clean Up and recently, the L.A. River Clean Up at Steelhead Park.

Well at the river clean up, my partners where Diana and Gaby. At first, Ms. Jenny partnered me with Gaby which it was a good choice. It was nice meeting her =) Then Diana finally found the right location. It was nice having them as partners and then later on Veronica and the other Gavi came along. Gaby had spotted the shopping cart and well I got excited about it becuase I felt like riding in it and pretend play while also spotting for more trash =) As Gaby mentioned earlier, we found the pan and metal fork. It surprised me. We also found a library key chain card, I thought that was funny to find. hehe. The girls and I found many ciggarettes on the floor and plastic bags and candy wrappers. We took a glance at the river and it looked horrible. The river looked dead. However, I believe ther were ducks. Im not sure, but Gaby mentioned something like that. Unfortunately I could not verify for myself becuase I had forgotten my glasses at home. I was also excited when Gavi found the dead lizard. I wish we could have disected it. But we didn't. I had fun cleaning and having the girls as a group. We had a great time cleaning together! Team work! =)

Lunch anyone?

When would be the day that it will be filled with water and fishes swiming?

Anyone threw the library card out the window?

Gavi and our friend the lizard. (RIP Lizard)

Hey everyone my name is Diana and I'm in Professor Jenny morning class, correction all girls class like I read Gabby mentioned below. Well on April 30, 2011 I went to La Gran Limpieza that was an event organized by FOLAR, Friends of the Los Angeles River. La Gran Limpeza doesn't mean to get Clorox and sponges to clean in the contrary it means to pick up all the trash that us humans have thrown at one point it in our life. That morning I woke up being tired since I had worked the night before and was working again that same evening. Something inside of me motivated me to get up the bed and go I dont know what it was but I was glad I went. Somehow on my way over there I got lost although I had directions printed out and had them with me. I'm glad and thankful Professor Jenny understood and tried to do her best to help me out with directions. When I arrived I signed in and got a shirt which I am proud to wear that way people could see I took the time to do something for the environment. While I was parking I was thinking to myself for being late I'm going to be doing it o my own it turned out i was wrong. When I arrived although I was late I saw two girls waiting for me: Nayeli, a classmate from my class, and Gabby,a student from the other class. I couldnt believe that they had waited for me and I'm thankful since we had so much fun talking and laughing while doing the clean up. We found the strangest things out on the bike path way we saw a pan and part of a fork and laughed imagining someone could have had a picnic. We also saw two shopping carts supprisingly one didnt have the front wheels but we managed to take it back to the starting point and the other was tied with a chain to the fence that was along the LA River. We also found a library card which to me the best way i could say got there was by someone throwing it out of the wiondow. Seeing a dead lizard that was picked by Gavi, one of my classmates, helped me realize that the trash that was thrown there could have been one of the main reason of why it was dead. We were able to pick up plenty of trash from plastic to paper. Being able to do something like this was really fun and feel proud of myslef for doing something like this since I was helping the environment. This also help me realize that us humans tend to want to blame someone for pollution and we point fingers to industries but in reality we have to point fingers to each other since we are the ones who throw trash. I hope that in the near future we could see the LA River back with water with fish swimming instead of trash. After this I'll be in the look out to particpate in more events like this.

Hello! My name is Gavi. I also attended The Great Los Angeles River Clean Up on April 30, 2011. It was my first time doing something like this. To be honest, it was a great feeling knowing I FINALLY did something good in my life .I'm just being facetious.Seriously though, I'm glad I had the opportunity to clean up with FOLAR and people who actually care about the environmental issues. I found several interesting things like a cool rock, a dead lizard and a bone. For some odd reason, I was really happy when I found these objects.However, there were a couple of things that did upset me when we started cleaning beside the river.

1. WE DID NOT GET THE CHANCE TO CLEAN EVERYTHING. I wasn't able pick up every single piece of trash because most of it was stuck. I literally spent most of the time playing tug-a-war with the trees and bushes. I obviously lost the game, but I can still hear the trees calling me out for another match. I took a picture of Veronica and the tree covered with trash.
   
2. THE TREES WERE SAD. I usually don't use personification, but in this case I will. It was almost like walking into a crime scene. The trees were the corpse and the trash was the lethal weapon. Most people would imagine trees swaying side to side almost like hippies yelling how free and happy they are, but not here. It was very depressing. I realized how the trash we make are the chains we put around our trees.
   
3. PLASTIC EVERYWHERE! I have never seen so much plastic in my life. Plastic should be banned for life! I agree with Jenny's husband, it really is the worst thing man has ever created. Sooner or later there will be an island full of plastic....oh wait minute...there is!! Overall, I had a lot of fun with my peers and especially with my buddy lizard, who is now resting in piece. RIP: lizard =(. We were all wondering how my buddy died. I wanted to dissect it just to see if it might have eaten plastic, but my peers did not want to see that. I am still curious though.
   
   
   

"Bring the People to the LA River"

Hi ALL!

As you may take notice, my name is Gaby and I am a freshman at CSULA enrolled in the English Stretch program with Professor Jenny. This past weekend I attended The 22nd Annual LA River Clean Up or as my bag reads "LA Gran Limpieza". When I first got to the LA River and found Jenny, she introduced me to her husband Robert and Nayeli(a student from her "all girl class" as she said). They were both a pleasure to meet, it really made me feel welcomed. Once I got a sense of environment, Jenny handed me a beautiful bright green bag that reads "Bring the People to the LA River" in big bold letters. To me the bag seemed so cool, and I was happy I came for the free stuff, but that wasn't the great reason I was there. I was there to clean and make a difference in my community.

I was partnered with some of the loveliest girls- Nayeli, Diana, Gavi, and Bero. All four of them taught me so much about the environment that we live in. Together we found all kinds of trash from a frying pan to a shopping kart without front tires. I think the craziest thing that we found was the frying pan with oil in it and metal forks around in the same area. It was just so crazy. The girls and I said, "somebody was having a party in the LA River" and laughed. When we were finally heading back to the clean up station Gavi found a dead lizard, this may seem pointless but Gavi found the dead lizard so interesting. Haha I never knew someone could be so fond over a dead animal. She decided to honor the lizard by hanging it on a stick in the kart. All I could do was laugh because I didn't know how to react as a vegetarian. But, now that I look back I honestly admire Gavi's reaction towards all animals even when dead. She taught me to acknowledge all of my environment including the animals- dead and alive.

It's given that every environment has all kinds of natural plants, water, animals, and insects; so it is up to us to take care of our environment. Through this experience I saw the LA River for my first time, met lovely people, learned to clean up my environment and cherish it's both dead and live animals. I saw all of this and grasped it all in my mind, and was given an awesome new bag that reminds me of this day. So now I hold my bag proudly that reads, "Bring the People to the River" and feel proud to be standing up for the cause of environmental justice.

More FOLAR pictures

FOLAR Clean Up

FOLAR


On April 30th, we cleaned up the LA River at Steelhead Park with the FOLAR (Friends of the LA River ) team. It was great to see all of my students there--and thankfully, Diana finally found us. The day was warm, but not oppressively hot, and at first I wasn't sure what to think. From where we were on the high, concrete verge, I couldn't even see the river, but people were heading down the steep slope with bags in hand. The FOLAR folks shared some information about the river, including its' length and that they hope to clean it up enough to bring the Steelhead trout back (hence the name of the park).
My students headed out and I waited for late arrivals, handing out plastic bags and wishing I could join in. Finally, I made it down. The river floor was soft sand and hard to walk on, but once I got down there I could see why we needed to clean it up: plastic, plastic everywhere, and none of it good for the river or the ocean the river eventually leads to. I thought about our unit on trash in the ocean and the Algalita talk we attended, and here was the evidence before my eyes: plastic bags, wrappers, bottlecaps, a dish drainer, all melded and welded into the plants growing in the river bottom. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen such a great advertisement for banning plastic bags; they were everywhere, and when I tried to pull them out they shredded. I quickly realized that we would not be able to clean the river, but I hoped it would at least be cleaner, that there would be less plastic for the birds and fish and turtles to mistake for food.
My students were great! Gavi found a bone and a dead lizard (which freaked everyone else out, I think), and Gabby was rolling down the highway with helpers. Markisse, Vanessa, and Esmeralda brought back a really gross couch cushion, and towards the end Gabby, Gavi, Nayeli, Veronica, and Diana brought back a shopping cart (one of four found that day!). Sitting in the shade by the water coolers, we talked about the experience. I was so happy that my students got to see a little bit of what we had been discussing in class, and I hoped that this event would help them realize that we can make a difference, by not throwing trash on the ground in the first place, and by cleaning up after people who do. The entire experience impressed me so much that I am writing an essay about it, and I want to extend my thanks to all of my students and to the wonderful people at FOLAR. In the end, as I headed out with my husband for some more cleaning, he told me "I think plastic might be human's worst invention", and looking at all the bags still stuck in the trees, all the bits we hadn't been able to clean, I had to agree. Still, it felt good to try to make the best of a bad situation.

April 30,2011

Hello my name is Esmeralda Navarro. I attend at CSULA and I am one of Professor Hicks student. I have had professor Hicks for 3 quarters already and we are focusing on the environment. My assignement was to go to one service learning and i decided to go Steelhead Park to pick up trash.

When i arrived at Steelhead Park right away we started picking up trash. There had been a lot of plastic bags. I decided to go below the bridge to pick up trash. There was plastic bags stuck to the trees and it was hard to unstuck them. everyone was colaborating and had picked about 10 plastic bags full of trash it was amazing how people can make a change if they decide to do it. Ifelt so good to be part of the service learning because i helped cleaned part of the environment. Trash is was affects the environment because there is trash all over and we dont give ourselves time to pick it up.

It was a nice experience seeing all these people helping the environment. Everyone should encourage others to clean up the environment because it needs our help. We should maintain a safe environment so it can last longer. There are many ways to keep the environment clean and this is one of the ways to help it. This is our and we are its hope for saving the environment befor it is too late. So lets have a CLEAN EARTH.