L.A. River Clean Up

Hello, my name is Nghi(Vicky) Quach. On Saturday, April 18, 2015 I had the honor to attend the "L.A. River" with my English 101 classmates. On that morning, I had a great experience with my English 101 class. To be honest, this is my first time that I went to the L.A. River. Before I arrived there, I was really excited to see how the river looks like. However,  the things that I saw there was not as wonderful as I thought it would be. I saw a lot of tree fell down to the ground with a lot of plastic bags, bag of chips, some papers, and some can too. I think the place could be very pretty, but all the trash around the river made the place look dirty. In addition, there was trash in the river as well. I felt really bad for some ducks that are living in the river because the river is their home, but it is covered with trash in it. Some ducks might think those trash as food and eat it. It can make them feel sick. On the side walks, there were a lot of glasses and it was really dangerous to walk there. On the other hand, I think that the Annual Friends of the LA River (FOLAR) is a great event that we all can help to clean up the river and to encourage more visitors to come out to the river. Looking at how people were working hard together to clean up the river, I felt really happy, exciting, and appreciated because these people are good people that volunteered to help save not just the river, but also the environment. Now that the river is cleaner than before and the ducks can live happily, people can ride their bikes and run around the river without seeing any trash. They can now see a beautiful river and breath in fresh air. If there is another program like this next year, I would join and would like to help out this meaningful program again.

    

LA River Clean-up

Hello my name is Luis Gonzalez and on April 18, 2015 my English 101 and I were part of an organization to help clean up the LA River. I arrived at the place around 8:40 and there were several groups around that area. I really had no clue if anyone from those groups were in my class because barely knew anyone from my class. Then I noticed someone familiar from my class and it was Thien. I didn't know him that well, but at least I had someone in my group to work with. I had no idea what I was expected to find cleaning up the river. The first 10 minutes of cleaning my friend found a full set of clothes and I have found a full car rim which I wasn't expecting to find. Thien and I decided to see the river from up close, we saw a couple of duck swimming in the river and when we got closer to the water all i can smell was saltwater mixed with chemicals which was unpleasant. Another hour of searching my friend and I found a Target shopping which was a pain to carry up the diagonal wall. Overall I had a great experience cleaning up the LA River and I actually plan to go there next year.

"LA GRAN LIMPIEZA"

Hello my name is Aura Larios and I had the honor to attend to “La Gran Limpieza” on Saturday April 18^th. It was a great experience to attend to the LA river cleanup with my 101 English classes. Even though I arrived late because I had some difficulties to get there I was happy to be there, because I felt that I was finally helping my community and giving back to nature. When I got there I needed to make a line in order to get some supplies before walking through the river. There were a lot of people from different parts of Los Angeles. There was no age limit I saw little kids and older people helping out to clean. I didn’t though that many people were going to assist to this even but they did. It was interesting to see around people cleaning and that they were worry about nature. There was a lot of trash but not as much as a though I was going to find. I decided to walk towards the river to see how it looked like. When I was near the river I remember the times I had pass nearby and never realize that it was the LA River. In my head this question came up a lot of times “Is there nature in LA?” When I watching the water I answered to myself “Yes There is nature in LA we just need to take care of it”.  FOLAR does a great job by organizing this event every year and this is a great call out for a lot of people.. While I was walking with some of my classmates we saw Mrs. Hernandez and she explain us more about the river which we all learn. Even though it was

sunny and at the end everyone wanted to go home it was a great experience. Thank you Mrs. Hernandez for taking us!!

Clean up at the LA River

On Saturday April 18, I went to go help clean the LA River. I invited my niece because I wanted her to see the nature that LA has to give. I got there at 8:50 am and I saw very little people. I didon't think many people were gonna arrive. Then as minutes passed more and more people arrived. I met up with classmates before cleaning. We all began around 9:10. Me and my niece decided to go clean the right side which seemed to have more water and plants. We started cleaning and noticed that everything i found was mostly food wrappers, clothing, and plastic bags. We cleaned while walking forward. The more I continued for ward I noticed there was more animals, plants, and the water was actually cleaner. I saw many ducks, dragonfly,and  fishes. I actually enjoyed this experience and hope to do it again in the future.

The Great Los Angeles River Cleanup!

On Saturday Morning, April 18th I attend a event to clean Los Angeles River. Let me began by saying how it was a super great experience. I don't live around the LA River, but when driving to this event, I realize that I pass by it everyday while on my way to school. This experience was great, I was able to interact with different new people who came from different cities just to clean the river. I also made a new friend there. All of this together added up to an amazing experience. I've always done community service when there is a chance but I have never heard of cleaning the river till "FOLAR" came up. When I got there I saw a lot of people; half of this people where students and the other half were people who gave up their Saturday morning to come clean the river. The FOLAR organization people provide every single person with gloves and trash bags all we had to do was pick trash. As the morning continued everyone got into groups and began cleaning, this is when I met my new buddy. We started walking around the rocks picking up trash we saw. At first the weather was nice but after walking for a while, it began to get hot and everyone was sweating, but this was not an obstacle to keep us from cleaning. Their were a few interesting things we saw, for example white flowers and a purple one but were hiding under need the trash. We also found pieces of plastic, pieces of metal and even an old rug. At this point I was shocked by all the trashed that was in the river. I couldn't believed all sources of things that were found in the river. It was really sad seeing that our river is not clean, that we can't even see some nature because it has been cover with trashed.  Most of the  trash in the river is what people throw out on the streets and it gets washed into the river and no one ever sees the damage it causes. After two hours of walking, we all went back to where we met and there I saw all this huge bags full of trash. We all gather with our group and talked about the interesting things we found.  After everything I can say that this experience made an impacted on me; how dirty some people can be. I not only went to the river for the first time but also made a new friend. It was a fun experience. I look forward attending next year.                                             

                      

LA River Clean Up!

Hello my name is Joceline Alvarado. On Saturday April 18,2015 I attended the 26th Annual Friends of the LA River Clean Up (FOLAR). When I got there I saw a lot of people in groups and I was kinda  lost because I didn't have a group or anything but after I made new friends and that was what it was all about. This was my very first time going to the LA river but I have done similar things of cleaning up the environment. Cleaning up the LA River was insane I found plenty of things I would think like why are they here. One thing me and my new buddies found was a huge heavy rug and I thought why is this even here and how did it even get there. I also found a lot of metal like a spoon and other kinds of metals. I actually thought the LA river didn't have nature at all. I thought it was dry like a lot of people would say. But we were all wrong well I was wrong because there is water and there is plenty of nature. Obviously the water is not that clean as we expected but at least we have water. I also found something very interesting a purple flower. I found it weird how there was a lot of rocks and bushes and trees but I just saw that one flower and it was beautiful as you can see above. The weather was crazy on Saturday it was really hot but that didn't make us stop to clean and help the environment  we kept cleaning. I had a lot of fun and made new friends which is great. If you guys have the chance you should really help the environment like in the book the Lorax we don't really think about how bad the environment can get we just care for ourselves like the Onceler is doing is ruining the enviroment and caring for himself and the Lorax is running everyone away because they are all dying and have no reason to be there anymore. We should all change and help the enviroment whatever way possible! 

Friends of Los Angeles River CleanUp

A Grain of Sand

Hello dear reader, my name is Edwin Lugo and I've encountered an opportunity to help ourselves by helping the environment. Doing such small task can result in a big impact when everyone comes together and collaborates in a project. Cleaning can be an overwhelming task specially when we're out there when the sun strikes the hardest, but everything that is worth it will always have a challenge to it. Water is one of the most important resource nature can give us because it helps us stay healthy and alive, by polluting our water we are putting our own health at risk because all of this water is being recycled for our use. If no one takes action by doing something positive our surroundings will only get worse with all of the pollution, that is why I think it's important for everyone to do something small for our community and start being aware of our current situation. Not only will this help us think more about our actions that might affect our water but it will also raise awareness so that others start caring also.