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. :)

The Garden

Hello everyone, it's Marina Josiff. I am from Mrs. Jenny's English 101 class.

On May 14, 2011, I attended the Solano Community Garden service learning project. When Mrs. Jenny told us it was a garden, I was not looking forward to it because the first thing I thought about was insects. Surprisingly, the garden was nothing like what I expected. I thought we were going to be in dirt and planting flowers. What I thought was far from what my task was. My duties for the day were to pick the strawberries and peaches. I loved my job because it was fun and I had friends and classmates there to enjoy it with. The only thing that shocked me that day was when the director told us if we see a snake to scream. When he told us that I wanted to go home, but I knew I couldn't. A little while later when we were touring the garden I was motivated to find a snake just so I can say I saw one and so I can scream. =D Anyways, when I went to pick the strawberries, I just stood there and looked at them. I seen too many bugs and I was not willing to grab anything. So, I called for Mrs. Jenny for a pair a gloves. When I put the gloves on I was ready to work. When I started picking the strawberries it was more fun and less complaining. I totally felt like a "city girl" that day and everyone was laughing at me. When I moved on to the next task, which was the peach tree, things started getting harder because I couldn't reach the peaches. I was too short. Although, I was too short to reach some peaches, I managed to pick some good peaches. Except for this very weird one. It was a smaller peach attached to a bigger one. It was very funny looking.

I never had an experience like the one I had at the garden. At the beginning, my friends were swinging on the swings, eating the strawberries, and walking around exploring. All I did was stand all the way at the top and stare at the freeway. Being there motivated me to start my own garden. I think it was great how the garden was organic. I wish a lot of gardens, foods, and products would be organic because that will help our world.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time there and I loved everything about it. I was sad that I did not find a snake, but I did see a 'glow in the dark' spider. Who would ever think a group of college students would enjoy being at a garden? I didn't and I would go back. I had an amazing experience, an experience I will never forget. I would love to do something like that again because it was actually interesting and fun to me. The garden was beautiful. Next time I won't judge things based off of the title. I would recommend anyone to go to that garden or any garden so they can experience what I got to experience. =) I am so glad I went. I am also glad I brought someone with me. If I would have known that it was going to turn out the way it did, I would have brought more friends. It was awesome! P.S. Thanks Jenny for the gloves. I do not know what I would have done without them. (hahaha)

Just one of the many beautiful things in the garden. ------------->

Me--->

Hi my name is Vanessa Saldana I participated in helping out with Solano Community Garden for Jennifer Hicks stretch class. When I first arrived the guy had put us right to work, he made the group I was in, loosen up the dirt. At first it seemed like a piece of cake I was like" I got the easy job", but the by not even half ways through the dirt my hands had got tired.I had to get a few brakes that's how tiring it was. It was hard work, but it made me appreciate farm workers even more, they are doing there best in providing us with fruit that is not planted with pesticides and that is what we need so we wont pollute our planet. The guy also gave us a treat afterward ,he let us try the fruit. The fruit was so amazing you can taste the freshness. What I learned from helping out in the garden is there trying to make our environment a better place by providing organic fruit. Also I learned that loosening the grass was the first step to planting fruit trees. I enjoyed my experience and it made me feel good inside that I had the opportunity to help out with the garden.

Volunteering For Our Future

Hi! My name is Jazmin Salazar and as well as my classmates I am also in Ms. Hicks English 101 class. I have to say that I love this class because I like how the topics we write about aren't boring. I like to discuss and discussing is my favorite part of this class. In this class we engage in environmental topics such as global warming and ways we can fix it. A way of doing this was by actually going out and doing something about the issue. I participated in the Solano Community garden and I also brought my brother along with me.

This community garden meets every saturdays at 10 am. We showed up at 9:30 am and waited for everyone to gather along. This is a great timing because it is not too late or too early. My initial reaction was "WOW" this place is huge.

The man that showed us around was "Al" he was in charge of explaining to us how his garden worked and how he make it work. I was surprised when he said that his garden was a restaurant garden since the restaurants want to by local. After he explained this we walked about and I loved how the crops where positioned and they were just so pretty.

After he explained how everything worked he gave us tasks and me and my classmates got to cut down the flowers in the entrance, This was a exciting job for both me and my brother. I had never used some gardening scissors so big , so I learned how to use them. My brother helped out by stomping down the flowers to make more room in the buckets, he was a great help since he has little feet.

Me and my classmates cut down the entrance to the garden and we did a pretty good job at it. It was kind of tiring but it felt good to volunteer in the end. I enjoyed doing this job because I gained some experience in the gardening field. I learned that you can take the dried down leafs to do "mulch". That is why we separated them into separate buckets.

With this experience I took a little bit of the garden with me. I learned that there is still thoughtful people out there. More of these places would help the environment out tremendously, since we wouldn't have to depend on food that has to be brought to us. Instead it would be locally grown, benefiting out health, wallet, and most importantly our environment. Overall, my brother and I loved the experience and hope to come back.

Solano Community Garden

Hello,

My name is Kristine and just recently I attended the Solano Community Gardena service learning project. I'm glad I was able to attend this, because this has opened my eyes a lot. When I first walked into the garden, it didn't seem like a garden. It looked like a HUGE area of junk, but it was only a matter of time until I saw the real beauty of the garden. When the director Al was explaining to us about the animals we might see I was very shocked. I knew that there might be squirrels, raccoons, and bugs, but when he said "if you see a snake scream so I can come and measure it, but if its the LARGE snake don't scream I already know how big he is". When Al said this I immediately thought "hhhmmmm I don't know if I want to do this anymore." Don't get me wrong I love animals and wild life but I had shorts on and I wasn't trying to get bitten. It also didn't help, that when Al was saying all this, a squirrel ran behind one of the trees an startled everyone [perfect timing]. One of the main things I remember Al and I talking about was how one animal being dead can affect the whole food pyramid. I don't remember the whole story, but I remembered the important parts. Al said "Remember when we were killing all the wolves?, Since there were not a lot of wolves the animals they ate were becoming over populated and they were eating more animals. Because the wolves weren't able to eat, they weren't able to prevent the food pyramid from changing. So because we killed the wolves we were messing up the food chain." From this I realized that just the little things can make a big change. I'm glad I participated in this, because if I didn't I wouldn't have known what I learned at the garden. I also picked peaches. That was a fun experience because it was something new, and the peaches and strawberries that we picked were THE BOMB! I tasted collard greens, cilantro, and chives. I also smelled lemon grass, spearmint, and I saw parsley.

I feel this service learning project had to do a lot with our unit, because it shows how little things can affect what we do in our world. I also feel we need to watch what we do to keep our world from getting even more damaged then what it already is.

Experience @ Solano Community Garden

Hello, my name is Markisse- Collette Soleta and I'm a freshman attending Cal State LA studying to become a nurse. I'm part of Jenny Hick's stretch programs and has been with her since the Fall. Since the fall the class has been covering topics that deals with the environment.The first year of college has been quite stressful due to writing a lot of essays but, I was able to learn how important it is for us to take care of our envrionment. Based on the readings Jenny assigned has made me realize that one day the problems that the environment is going through right now, may get worse. Since the class was assigned to do one service learning, I decided to help out in the Solano Community Garden.

On Saturday May 14, 2011, I arrived at the Solano Community Garden for the first time. Not only did my classmates attend, but Jenny's other English 101 went as well. I found it interesting that the garden was near the freeway because I was hoping that the garden would be in a quiet neighborhood surrounded by a lot of houses. In this garden, people come to visit and plant cilantro, broccoli, strawberries, peaches, beautiful flowers and many more. These produce are being sold to nearest restaurants. Having a local garden has helped the community conserve fuel that is being used to transfer produce from other areas.

A man named Al who was in charge of the garden gathered everyone together to give us instructions. He assigned different tasks as in: pick out strawberries, cut down branches, plow, and pick out peaches. My group and I decided to help cut down branches that were blocking the main entrance of the garden. We were given branch cutters that were almost as big as me.


After an hour, my group and I ended up doing a great job in clearing the entrance. We had to separate the branches/flowers and dead flowers which will be used as fertilizers to other plants and put them in different buckets. We had the opportunity to eat fresh peaches and strawberries that the other students had picked out. Both peaches and strawberries tasted great and juicy. They both didn't taste like the ones that are being sold at supermarkets.

Overall, I had a great experience because I was able to help out in this community. This service learning has made me become a better person because it showed me how important nature is and experience something I've never done as in cut down branches. I would love to come back with my friends or my class and help Al and others to take care of their garden and maybe eat more peaches. Thank You<3