Waking up early on Sunday morning to go help clean a beach on one of my days off, considering having a long night the night before, it felt kind of skeptical to me. But once my ride picked me up from my house to go to the beach, I had a different perspective of the day. Just as i thought, I had a good time at the beach, on top of getting the feeling that you did something good for your community. Getting to my experience cleaning the beach, me and the group that i was cleaning up with found a significant amount of pollution on the beach. We found a metal rod just laying in the sand. We also found a large amount of plastic wrappers, which was one categories that consisted of most of the waste. I actually found a piece of bamboo and it made me think if it had drifted all the way over here from Japan. Other groups that were helping clean up the beach found some pretty bizarre pieces of waste. One group actually found a really sharp knife in the sand, where someone could of hurt themselves with. Another group found a tampon, which i thought was pretty funny. At the end of the day, my group had collectively gathered 4 bags filled with trash. At the end of our "cleaning session," my group gathered around a bon fire pit and hung out for a bit before we headed home. I'm sorry that i cannot provide any pictures but I'm pretty sure a member that was in my group will post some of this pictures that we took. But overall, I had a great experience and knowing that I contributed in making this world a better place makes me feel good about myself. I hope that everyone that went out and helped out Heal the Bay clean up the beach continue to do good gracious as such and for those who could not make it, I hope you can contribute in anyway to our environment. :D

Heal The Bay

I was able to participate in the Heal The Bay to clean the beach. It felt great to help out and pick up the trash that people don't throw away because I knew I was doing a good thing. I was able to pick up a shoe, many plastic bottles, and a blanket that was in the sand. I had a great time at the beach and I would go again to help and clean up.

Heal the Bay: Dockweiler Beach Clean Up

On Sunday, September 27th, 2011, from 9:00am until 12noon, I headed down to our school beach on a mission to clear the sand and water of harmful and unsightly pollution. Our purpose while attending Heal the Bay: Dockweiler Beach Clean Up, was a beach cleanup in which we removed trash and recyclables from our California State University, Los Angeles beach at Dockweiler. Coastal and beach cleanup is extremely important and one of the largest volunteer events in the world. As many might ask, “why are beach clean ups so important”? California's coast and waterways collect trash and debris from places all over. This trash, if not removed, can be harmful and even fatal to all manners of marine wildlife, can damage our state's economy, and can even become a human health hazard. Coastal cleanup is a great way for us students and families to join together, take care of our fragile marine environment, show community support for our shared natural resources, learn about the impacts of marine debris and how we can prevent them, and most importantly to have fun!

I was able to make a difference by helping preserve and clean our Cal State LA, Dockweiler beach. We try to keep it clean because a clean beach helps to make our environment a much cleaner and healthier place to be. I felt proud after seeing the difference, how the beach looked after the cleanup. When we first got there, there were trash bags, bottles, chip bags, wrappers, as well as gross things such as condoms. Trash, even though this beach is considered to be one of the cleanest beaches within Los Angeles, still after being cleaned, still had trash and recyclables spread everywhere. But, walking through the foggy beach weather, after finishing, all I could see was sand, even more sand, and the beautiful beach. The way in which this experience connected to larger themes discussed in our class would contain themes such as restoring and issues concerning our environment. Also, this could somewhat tie into the theme of the American dream and as to what exactly you appreciate America to be. The trash and waste I found at Dockweiler is essentially detrimental and dangerous, not only to fish but also marine wildlife everywhere. As we noticed, as I found a somewhat big Styrofoam ice chest and glass bottles, these objects can and will eventually break down and be very dangerous for thousands and thousands of not only fish, but as well as other marine life it comes into contact with.Everyone went home with bright smiles on their faces knowing that they did something for their environment. We gathered all our debris and recorded the number of pieces collected. Other trash items included food packaging, cigarettes, plastics, and so on. It was surprising to see that beaches are polluted by such trash.

This experience opened my eyes to what’s happening around me. We are so preoccupied with unnecessary things – don’t forget that there’s a world out there that needs attention. It needs our help. We were the ones that brought bad changes to the environment, but we are also the hope for a better and cleaner world. The Earth is the only inhabitable planet. The future lies in our hands. As we work together to make a difference, this is the best gift we can give to Mother Earth, who has sustained us and nurtured us for a long time. In order to change and better society, we must all do our own part!

Today cleaning the beach overall was a great experience. There was a lot of trash on the beach something we found were just crazy. For example a sofa cushion in the rocks, and a metal pipe in the sand.I was amazed on how much trash there was and even with a squad of like 100 people cleaning. I was disgusted on how many cigarettes butts and tips i picked up, if they were to keep something out from the beach it should be smoking. Overall it was fun and had a great time picking up trash,we didn't manage to clean it all up,However we made a great impact on the environment. We have to keep our beaches clean.

Cleaning Up Santa Monica Beach!!!! YAY!!! :)

Hi everyone!,my name is Tanya Olvera as you can see by my title I wasn't able to attend any of the service learning projects Professor Hicks planned out for us to attend as a class. For some reason or another I didn't end up making it to any of the places the service projects were taking place because I dint have transportation and every time I tried going on the bus I would get lost ahahahaa! I regret not making it but their was only so much I could do. As I reviewed the blogs I realized what an amazing experience I would've had if I attended. I'm a person that loves to do community service because of that nice feeling of satisfaction you get when you know you have done something to help your community. What a better way of doing this than as a group people for example with friends or new people and have a life time experience filled with laughter and joy. Due to this inconvenience I had to take a long trip to Santa Monica beach on Monday,June 6,2011 when I first arrived, the first thing that caught my attention was the view of the ocean and the wild life.I decided to clean up this beach in particularly because I personally love this beach and I 'm a witness of how much this beach has changed over the years due to trash pollution.I come to this beach anytime everyday if I had the chance because I'm that kind of person that loves to sit at the beach and admire nature. From the distance where I was standing I wasn't able to see any trash but as I approached the sand I saw a lot of trash from paper,plastics bottles,bags of chips,to metal pieces. I knew right away I had to get my bag out and start cleaning the beach. I had a great time cleaning in the end i had to sit down to take a rest because walking through the sand was no joke you get tired. I knew that in the end even though people would rather stare at me instead of coming to help clean up the beach I felt I was making a difference.I learned that I was feeling upset because people didn't seem to appreciate what I was doing because they would just look at me thinking I was weird. Due to the fact,that I was the only person who was out there in the beach picking up trash instead of getting inside the water and having a good time.I felt unappreciated because I had been cleaning for four hours and I was tired ,sweaty and thirsty then I saw a bird and it looked at me and laid down in a place where I had cleaned the trash in that moment I felt overwhelmed with joy I had cleaned up a place where birds will come to rest. Apparently this was a place where the birds will come to relax but they could no longer stay there because of the excessive amount of trash people threw in their little spot.I knew that if their was someone that would appreciate what I did that day it would be the wild life because I was cleaning their home. This experience helped me appreciate just like I'm sure the birds and wild life appreciated what i did. I'm grateful that other people went out into the community to help clean our environment because in the end the environment is our home as a whole.I had an amazing time cleaning up the beach I think that I will be doing this more often but next time with a group of people to really make a difference and inspire people to do the same.

GRANADA Park :)

Hi my name is Alexis Reed this weekend I visited Granada Park. Walking around the park picking up trash really made me appreciate the environment more . Picking up trash at the park made me happy . I felt like I was doing the right thing even though I wish i could have went to the garden. It seem like my classmates enjoyed their selves at the garden and had a lot of fun. While picking up trash at Granada park I wasn't the only one that was trying to save the environment there was this man picking up trash right along with me . If we had more people like him in the world we can have a cleaner environment . I really enjoyed cleaning up the park i plan to go clean up the beach soon. I had a great time observing the environment this year . I will continue to try and better the environmnt as long as I live one the plant earth. :)