Cleaning Up DockWeiler Beach

My name is Francisco Alarcon and I participated in cleaning up DockWeiler beach with California State University Los Angeles' students. At first I did not really mind the idea of cleaning up the beach. I been to the beach plenty of times but never really paid attention to see if there was trash. When we arrived there we were given gloves, bag, and a tally paper. The tally paper was to keep track of all the trash we picked up but we soon realized that the amount of trashed we picked up was too much to tally. I filled up my bag with so much trash that the bag started to rip. I was disappointed to see the amount of trash there was in the beach. After the clean up we were told that DockWeiler beach was one of the "cleanest" beach in California. That just made me shake my head at humanity. We were then informed that animals eat this trash because they confuse it for food. I felt really bad for all the animals that could have been saved if we all just threw the trash in trashcans. It is a shame that people do not take responsibility for their trash and animals are paying the price. This event has definitely made me more aware about this problem. It has motivated me to take more responsibility for my trash. I also stopped using plastic bags, which was very common to find at the beach, when I go grocery shopping. Overall, I am glad I was a part of this event.

Heal the Bay clean up

My name is Walter Carrera, and I was one of the many who took place in this fantastic Heal the Bay activity. In this activity many students from Cal State LA went to Dockweiler beach to clean it from all the trash, including me. When I first arrived at the beach I was excited to be there but in my mind I did not think we were going to do very much work because I had never thought that the beach would be really dirty. I was disappointed when I arrived because I saw that the beach really was filthy and damaged from all the trash left there. The students were given gloves and a plastic bag to pick up the pieces of trash on the sand and a note card to keep track of what we picked up most. So my group and I set off to pick up trash and it was surprisingly fun to me to walk around in the sand picking up trash with my friends. Two of the most common found items were cigarette tips and butts, and Styrofoam. Out of everything I found at the beach, the most interesting item I found was a giant metal rod that I am guessing is used for fishing. It was an awesome experience to go and give back to the community by cleaning our beach. Hopefully many other people grow the desire to do the same and keep our California beaches the best in the world.

Saving our World

Hello my name is Rodolfo Mendez, I am from Cal. State Los Angeles and participated in the heal the bay at Dockweiler State Beach. This event was a good way to finally get a chance to go out doors, smell the fresh air and just stare out in to the ocean, just enjoying nature. Aside from that we were also contributing to our mother nature, it was really disgusting seeing lots of trash not only on the beach but also on the hills a couple of yards from the water. Things such as condoms, cigarette buds, and beer bottles were lying around and slowly making their way to the ocean shore. As one of my friends stated in an earlier blog, we turned it into a friendly competition to see who could collect more trash, that way we wouldnt easily get bored. In about 2 hours we each had a huge black bag full of trash. I feel we greatly contributed to the environment, although it wasnt a drastic change, we made it cleaner and safer. It felt really good helping out, and at the end of the day we all went home as winners.

I am Edgardo Gonzalez and i participated in the Heal the Bay event at Dockweiler Beach. I didn't expect to be much help in cleaning up because i thought that the beaches were going to be clean already. I was surprised to see so much trash not just on the beach but on the streets above the beach near the streets. You can find a lot of bizarre things that do not belong any where near a beach like cigaret buds, condoms, bottles, and a lot more filth. A lot of the trash that is thrown and left on the beach is a danger to animals. Some animals may eat the trash thinking it is food and die, especially if it is plastic because plastic doesn't digest. I felt good helping clean up the beach and made it fun. My friends and I had a competition to see who can pick up the most trash and fill up the trash bags the fastest. I didn't think of this event as a chore but as a chance to help the environment and make it safer for all of us.

Beach CleanUp

Hello, this is Andy Martinez. A while back I went to a beach clean up at Dockweiler Beach. It was the earliest i have woke up to do anything since the beginning of school, but anyways it was a very interesting experience. I wasn't expecting the beach to be as dirty as I saw it. There was alot of styrofoam pieces laying around and cigarettes especially on the side close to where people parked. I never really realized how dirty and irresponsible some people can be. I also saw lots of candy wrappers. As I continued my adventure my group and I came across an area where we found Vodka bottle and a Patron bottle and in the surrounding area condoms, these people really got it going. It was very awkward we looked at each other got the bottles and left back where we came from. It was an interesting experience that I think was worth me getting up earlier than ever, for this school year.

making a change

hey guys, my name is leti and i am a student of CSULA. in my english 101 class, i was told to do an environmental project, which was to go anywhere and pick up trash. when i heard this, at first i didn't want to do it. after seeing the presentation by a person from the heal the bay, something changed my mind about the project. so one day i was walking to the park by my old elementary and saw so much trash. i was shocked to see that. so the next day i when to the park with a trash bag and some gloves to pick that mess. to my surprise, i found some things that can not only hurt the environment but also the children who go to that park. in the photo from left to right i found: plastic bags, plastic chip bags, Styrofoam cups, cigarettes, syringes, lemons, and a tequila bottle. what type of people would leave these things? at least i cleaned up and tried to make a change. hopefully the people who saw me pick up the trash would try to do the same. so to people out there reading this, try to make a change that can save the environment as well as the children. peace and love.. <3

Heal The Bay

Hi everyone. My name is Azzam Meeralam. I'm a student at Cal. State L.A. In ENG 101 class, we were invited to "Heal the Bay" event. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate. I decided to do something else. I went to Del Norte Park to pick up some trash. When I got there, the park was almost empty. I picked up many different kinds of trash, plastics, bags and tree branches. While I was walking around the park, I noticed one big piece of tree branch, so I picked it up and throw it in the garbage container. Also, I picked up some plastics like water bottles and bags.



The cleaning process took about five minutes and I was able to pick up four to five items off the ground. If I stayed longer, I would have picked up more, but because of the sunset I had to stop.
I believe that it is our responsibility to keep our parks and beaches clean and beautiful. And that can be achieved by picking up our trash before we leave these places. It is easy! take a bag with you whenever you go to the beach or to the park.

Heal the Bay

This is Martin Sandoval from Prof. Holladay's english class. At first I kind of didn't want to come because it was a far drive for me and early in the morning. But I did end up going and there I met up with my friends and we teamed up in a big group. We walked alongside the shoreline and found a lot of trash. We found a lot of candy wrappers and balloons. At first I didn't think we were going to find enough trash to fill up our bags but we did. Our bags filled up within the first fifteen minutes. One of the most interesting things that we found was a huge blanket that was buried under the sand. It took about eight of us just to get it out of the ground because someone had tried to bury it as deep as they could in the sand. I wasn't surprised that when we pulled out the blanket it was huge. In the end I was glad that I went to go help out clean the beach and I would definitely do it again.

Heal The Bay

My name is Jack Cuateco. I am a student at Cal State LA and I along with all my classmates participated on Heal The Bay at Dockweiler beach. When we got there, from far the beach looked clean to me. How wrong I was to find out that most of the trash was buried. the person in charge had announced that there was a competition to find the most strangest thing and my friends and I with the help of some strong girls dug out a queen size blanket. The blanket was barely sticking out enough to be spotted and was almost dug in three feet deep. next to the blanket was a jimmy (used condom). HUUMM we don't have to be rocket scientist to do the math that the night before that day, those persons had a wild night. But the least they can do is pick up after their selves. I never thought that cleaning the beach would be so fun.

Hello, I am Mauricio Sandoval from Professor Holladay's class

When i arrived on the beach i came to the conclusion that we were going to be here a while. So as i picked up my bag with 3 of my friends and i. We headed toward the bonfire pits and found nothing of trash. So we headed toward the water side and walked all the way north unill we got to this peer looking place. Where it had a skinning bridge to the rocks that lay on the other side. We found many peices of card board and alot of plastic snack bags such as a corn nut bag and a hot cheeto bag. We had some pretty funny expiriences on the way past the peer, one being us chasing a lot of sitting seagals and then panicing over the fact that they might of deficated on us. Once we had decided that the beach had little to no trash left, we headed towards the hill that seperated the highway and the beach. As we were there the first thing we found, which i decided was the most interesting item that we found. was a used condom. Now we didnt just pick it up so easily, we had one guy put on gloves and use one gloves to hold a bag to pick up the condom. i thought that was pretty funny. But in the end i think we had a good time there and it was a pleasure to help out.

Cleaning The Beach

This was my first time cleaning up a beach. Before we started cleaning up the teacher told us what to pick up and what not to pick up, that if we found something dangerous to tell them. After that mini orientation we got into groups and started cleaning up. While cleaning up the beach I found a wide variety of trash including cigarettes, pieces of plastic, and other small garbage. Most of that probably washed up from the ocean, there were also things left behind by people at the beach such as toy shovels, blankets, and balloons. I was told that balloons sometimes kill animals since they tend to eat them.Even though there wasn't as much garbage, it is still surprising to me that there is so much plastic among other rubbish being left on the beaches. We should maintain our beaches clean since those places, are places to relax, have fun, and just enjoy. After the clean up was over i felt great because i help save the life of some animal.

Cleaning up the beach was a first time experience in my part, as I had started I expected to find the typical trash around the area. A lot of plastic and cigarette buds were among the common. It was an extraordinary experience waking up early morning and heading straight to cleaning up the beach. It was very fun to be quite honest picking up trash and actually doing something for the community. As much of the work was done for a good cause, I hope to be able to participate in future clean-ups with the same people as it tends to be more fun to help out with good people. To this day walking around the streets and finding trash similar to the beach made me see how easily people can not care about the outside world. It doesn't hurt picking up trash here and there, and its only much better being sanitary around your very neighborhood. So far this was a well done job for everyone and I will be doing my part from time to time to help clean-up the streets and beach that we call home.

Heal the Bay

Heal the Bay

Upon arrival I was not looking forward to cleaning the beach. I was tired, grumpy and all I wanted to do was crawl back to my bed and go to sleep. While walking down to the beach I didn’t notice that much trash, but once we arrived to the beach we were finding trash everywhere. We found trash from plastic bottles to medicinal marijuana “baggies”. Most of the trash that we found was left there by visitors. Even though they were on a couple feet away from a trash can, they decided to leave it there instead of picking it up and throwing it away. We were there for two hours and we managed to fill three bags. Even though cleaning the beach brings a lot of self-appreciation. It also brings awareness to the problem that trash causes in the ecosystem. Most of the trash that doesn’t get picked usually will end up in the ocean, and many fish will eat the trash. Cleaning Dockweiler Beach was a very fun activity, especially when you’re cleaning it with a bunch of your friends.

Returning the Favor

Hello, my name is Jeanne Pascua and I'm one of Professor Holladay's English 101 students. On October 23rd, I had to participate in the Dockweiler clean up for service learning. To be honest, this event makes me reminisce when I used to be part of K.E.Y. Club in Eagle Rock High School. I had to do 60 hours of community service by the end of senior year. People may misinterpret this club for making "keys," but it's false. We had to help out the community by attending various events such as clean ups. Similarly, the last event I attended on my senior year helped the environment just like this clean up. We had to plant trees at Highland Park.

Attending this event was a wonderful experience; excluding the fact that I had to wake up early on a Sunday. Professor Holladay generously provided transportation for me. Since my dad was unfamiliar with the beach, this was very convenient. The clean up wasn't an individual activity. We had to form a group of four and carry one or two bags per group. My clean up group mates were: Luis Martinez, my English 101 teacher herself, and her daughter. We mainly cleaned near the coastline and encountered: candy wrappers, cigarette butts, eaten fruits, and other plastic material. Most of the trash we found were similar. Candy wrappers were a common sight. In my opinion, the most interesting trash that Luis encountered during the clean up was coal. I wouldn't know why coal would be sitting near the coastline unless it traveled through the ocean. A couple of things that he found that were also interesting were squeezed lemon slices. My professor assumes that people were having Tequila shots with lemon. Personally, the only interesting thing I've found was a sponge ball buried inside the sand. I had to excavate it. It was difficult to find something strange near the coastline rather than what I just mentioned. Apparently, it was the most famous location among other clean up volunteers.

I decided to take the bus back home with a friend of mine. Not only did I feel great about helping but I also experienced taking the Metro Line for the first time. One thing that disappointed me was how I didn't get to pick up trash aside from the candy wrappers. It was also difficult to take photos while cleaning up; particularly with dirty gloves on. Frankly, I was surprised when I found out that this beach was owned by Cal State L.A.

I believe that this was a terrific event especially for those who've never helped out their community. I wish that the majority would attend events such as these even if it isn't an assignment. As a student, I'm considering to volunteer for future clean ups. Since Mother Nature allowed us to manipulate her, we should return the favor.

Dirty Beaches

Ok, my name is Andres Vela, and a few classmates of mine and I participated in the Heal the Bay clean up event at Dockweiler beach on the 23rd of October. It was a great experience and an eye opening event to what goes on right in front of us at the beach. The most notorious piece of trash my group found were plastic and metal bottle caps. I hate bottle caps now. the experience was great, it has inspired me to participate in other Heal the Bay events and related events. My family and I recycle, but that's nothing compared to actually going out there and doing more than whats expected from our part. I learned that we as a group are to blame for the state of our environment, so its is up to us to fix what we've done. we cant get whats made it to the ocean, but we can do everything possible to prevent it from getting worse.

Helping The Bay

My name is Sebastian Sotelo and i attended the beach cleanup activity for Dockweiler and it was a fun and good experience. When i first arrived there i saw that it was pretty messy around with trash thrown into the bushes and down the hills and i was also surprised on how people are so careless on how they damage our ecosystem. All that trash that i picked up made me feel great inside because I wasn't only helping the ocean but ourselves in a way because it damages us and eventually we might end up killing ourselves one day if we continue this. I was proud of everyone that went to help clean up because it just feels good doing something for our community and for ourselves. There was one thing though that i still have in mind. If Dockweiler is the cleanest one, from what i saw, I wonder how dirty ones actually look like. It's ridiculous

Waking up in the early morning I had a nolgastic feeling. A feeling that I have not had in years since I was in elementary. So after I woke up took a shower and got dress. I waited at the bus stop to go to spring and temple because today was the day I was going to dockweiler beach to clean it up. When I got there it was still a long way before the meet up was at. It was a really in the foggy morning at the beach. When I arrive there I saw a group of people there and the leaders were taking the “permission slip” I should say, awhile I was about to give the slip I drop one but did not notice until someone pointed it out for me. When I went were everybody else went to gather the person in the red sweater was giving instructions. here we are getting the supply it was a bag for each group and a check list of what we piked up. I went an group up with my two class mates n friends

they were a lot of seaguls at dockweiler. We latter decided to group with other people. there is someone marking a tally on what we piked up. We were walking up further until we hit the mother load of beach trash we even found half of a watermelon

As we finish we went to look for more thrash we went in to gient rocks to see if there any trash in between them I saw some marine life on the sides of the rocks when there was nothing we left and one of our member started a small fire with an amber later we added more wood that was on the side so we took a break there near the fire because it was cold at the beach soon it was time to go and we left. When we got to the rondevu point (which is where we got our supply) there was not that much trash as I thought

It was a long time since I went to the beach and I had fun.

I'm Anthony Lien and on the day of the clean up my ride couldn't pick me up so i had to get my dad to take me so i got there late and by that time there wasn't really much to do. It was still fun to walk around the beach and pick the traash that was still there. At the end everyone found a lot of interesting stuff like a knife, a large blanket, and even a condom. I was really shocked when someone said that the this beach was one of the cleanest beach. I was shocked that it was even with all the trash, i wonder what the dirty ones look like.

Dockweiler Cleanup

My name is Jonathan Leal and I'm in Hasmik Barsamian’s English 101 course and our English classes were asked to participate in a cleanup of Cal State La’s, Dockweiler Beach on Sunday the 23^rd of October. At first of course everybody was skeptical about it, who wants to give up their weekend to cleanup a smelly beach (JK). I know that a bunch of my class and I were deciding on ways to avoid it but when the day came closer I was actually looking forward to it, I think we all did. With all the focus on the environment being in danger it’s the least we can do. I mean helping pick up some trash on a beach for 2 hours that’s not that bad and it turned out to be fun because we had friends there doing it with us. To begin with we all had to meet up at the beach and I offered to carpool and ended up taking two classmates which I was fine with, helping out the environment after all. We showed up to the beach and to my surprise a bunch of people were there to help, not just my whole class, but a lot more. Then they told us how we could contribute to cleaning up the beach, by picking up styrofoam, plastic, glass, basically anything man made. So my whole class decided we would do this as a large group and we all proceeded down the beach with the bags, chart, and gloves they gave us. At first we were goofing around a little bit but then we started to see a lot of trash in areas some would be decently clean and some just covered in trash. (We called the trash covered spots gold mines or jackpots.) So we ended up making it our duty to get the most tally marks for our charts to turn in. And all of a sudden everyone started yelling out things they were finding. Not one person didn’t participate; everyone was picking up trash and calling out what was found. After about 30 minutes I started writing down on the chart and at first we started very slow a couple of wrappers here and there but then a jackpot would come and the chart started filling up quickly. After about an hour or so we had found a plethora of hazardous materials toward the environment such as plastic rings, plastic pieces, glass, styrofoam, and a large amount of candy wrappers that was probably the most of something that we had found. Even though it was only 2 hours we were all pretty much exhausted and decided to walk back and we were quite a ways from where we initially started. And when we finally got back the teachers explained how much it helped, and if interested, we can volunteer to do it again. We ended up filling up around 3 to 4 bags which isn’t bad. And I have to say even though I missed football and sleep, that I'm glad I instead helped the environment, even if it was in a little way.

Healing the Bay @ Dockweiler Beach

Hello! My name is Brandon Lee and I'm currently attending CSULA and I along with my fellow classmates participated in cleaning up the beach. At first, I was excited to help clean the beach, but then I realized it was much more than cleaning the beach. Healing the bay is a way to understand nature and see the impact we as humans do to our environment and it is sad. Seeing all the trash laying around, and countless dangerous objects that can be harmful to people and animals everywhere. This just shows how careless we are as humans and what we are doing to the environment. Yet, I am very happy that I had the opportunity to give back to the environment and take part in something that changed our planet. Hopefully by my actions cleaning the beach, people will understand how important it is to keep our beaches clean and save our world from littering and carelessness.

Cleaning Dockweiler Beach

Hello my name is Kevin Sakamoto. My classmates, from English 101 at CSULA, and I participated in a beach cleaning event called Heal the Bay at Dockweiler Beach. I had never done anything like this before so I was interested to see what it would be like. When my classmates and I were told that this was one of the cleanest beaches I was hopeful that I wouldn’t have to pick up very much trash, but when we got there I realized that even one of the cleanest beaches is pretty dirty. It made me wonder what the dirtiest beaches looked like. My classmates and I helped clean the beach from 9-12 Sunday morning and managed to fill several bags full of trash. While cleaning the beach I realized the number one thing we found was cigarette butts. It was unbelievable how many we found. We also found a lot of plastic and Styrofoam pieces. The worst thing is that all these little pieces of trash are mistaken as food by the wild life and are hazardous to their health. We even found a knife and a car sunroof. There were many other weird thing found that should not be on a beach. All this made me realize how filthy people can be by not throwing away their trash. Next time I got to the beach I will be sure to throw all my trash away to help prevent harm to the environment. Cleaning the beach was a fun experience and opened my eyes to how little things can help out the environment.

Healing the Bay

Hello, my name is Enrique Gomez. I am a student in a English 101 class at Cal State L.A. This past Sunday my class participated in an event, "Heal the Bay", where we went to Dockweiler Beach to clean it. My group decided to only clean the streets behind the beach area. I was shocked at all of the trash we found lying around the area. I'd imagine the actual beach has a lot more trash. We found a lot of the same trash over and over again, such as plastic bottles, plastic/beer bottle caps, and cigarettes. As if that wasn't enough, we also found a knife at the top of a hill. Why are all of these objects just lying around? People could get seriously hurt, especially from the knife we found. The beach is suppose to be a place where people can simply relax without having to worry about getting hurt. However, these dangerous objects are making it difficult to do so. I didn't realize how horrible the trash at beaches were before. I am glad that my English 101 class decided to attend the "Heal the Bay" event over the past weekend. Not only did we clean the beach for our own safety, but also for the safety of all the animals that come across this garbage on the beach daily. I would hate to see what the other beaches' garbage is like.

A Day at the Beach

It is very interesting to find out what our beaches look like and really take the time to see what buried treasures we can find. At least for some beaches it can be done like Dockweiler Beach, where we were able to clean up the beach and create research for those who are trying find out what is killing our marine life. For the most part I feel happy that we, the Stretch Composition class, were able to take a Sunday off and use our energy for something effective and efficient for the ocean and it inhabitants. All of the trash that our class was able to pick up and throw away was remarkable. Not only the amount, but also the size of each object. For example, my team found about 10 glass bottles of beer, a Styrofoam cooler, and a few paper and plastic bags. And how not to forget the hundreds of cigarette butts we found lying around. People have to become aware of what they are doing so that this can be avoided. It is not fair that our marine life has to pay the price for our laziness. It doesn't take a lot of energy to take your trash to the trash can!

Helping The Environment

This past Sunday I was able to participate in a great event. As part of my English class I was able to go help out at the beach and see why they say the beaches are so dirty. While arriving there it was clear that i couldn't really see the beach I don't know if it was because the day was so foggy or because right next to the beach the air port is there and obviously the planes create smog in the air. Well besides that when arriving there we were given instructions to clean up the beach and pick up anything that looked to be out of place. Some of the things we didn't pick up were things that looked dangerous or something harmful. While walking around the beach with my classmates we discovered various things that didn't seem to fit into the beach environment. For example we found socks laying around like if it was a laundromat, we found tampons GROSS!!, we also found allot of cigarette buds. A beach is suppose to be a friendly environment where you want to take your family for a nice time not to see all these disgusting things. As part of the clean up we were given bags and a tally marker to check of how many things we found and the number of times we found them. I was along with all of my classmates and it made it feel like we were a group and not just one person doing all of the work. I was able to cooperate with all of the guys and see how they all work and also find out that we can all work together. It made me feel good that I was doing something to help out this planet and that even though it is not as big of a clean up as i wish it could have been it made me feel good to know that I was doing something to help out. While doing all of this it make me think about the comic i had read in our book called As The World Burns and it shows that if we do not do anything to save the world it will end up dying. We must also think about the animals that are living here and we must also learn that we are not the only ones living in this planet. It makes me feel great knowing that I am not the only one that thinks this and also that I was able to make a difference for one day.

- Stephanie Rodriguez , Instructor: Hasmik Barsamian

Bay Needing Healing

Hello. My name is Mike Landaverde and I participated in an event that allowed me and my peers to clean Dockweiler State Beach. They told us this beach was one of the cleanest beach in the Los Angeles area, but that day it appeared to be far from clean. This beach was covered with all kinds of trash, from ocean to where the street met, and this was hard to believe to be the cleanest. What we did at this event was get into groups and get even in the most uncomfortable places to be to pic up trash and all kinds of objects that where not suppose to be lying around that seemed like a potential threat to all kinds of life, both human and animal. Why we chose to do this matters a lot, because this shows that marine life is very important to us. Apart from that, we as humans enjoy the beach several times in a year, and many are exposed to dangers of getting hurt or sick, just like life in the ocean. Even if it was just one beach and it was for such a short time, we eventually were able to pick up multiple bags of trash and make somewhat of a difference that probably would have prevented health risks.

Heal The Bay

Cleaning the beach wasn't exactly my idea of a Sunday morning, but it was really fun. My English 101 class was invited to help clean Dockweiler Beach. My classmates and I found a diversity of trash, from cigarettes butts to styrofoam pieces, and plastic bags. Healing The Bay was a really interesting experience, I learned a lot from it. I would've never paid attention to all that trash if it wasn't because we actually went to clean the beach. At the end, there was a lot of trash collected, and I realized that our time and effort was worth because even though the beach wasn't perfectly clean, we picked up a lot of trash that could have ended up hurting plants and animals in the ocean. We really made a difference. Yes it's not that much trash when you actually start thinking about all the trash there is in every beach, but little by little it starts to be something and something is better than nothing.

Curing the Bay!!

Hi my name is Alfonso Ramirez. My English 101 class had to attend Heal the Bay at Dockweiler Beach for a day. At first I was not really interested in participating but once I was done, I left with a different perspective of the beach. I never knew that the trash on the ocean and beaches were mistaken as food by animals. Cleaning the beach made me realize how much animals are in jeopardy. Most of the trash my partners and I found were simple stuff that could have been thrown away. I found a lot of cigarette buds, napkins, and bottle caps. I thought beaches were non smoking zones but yet I found a lot of cigarette buds! These items can easily be put into trash cans and be avoided by animals. The trash cans along the beach were all full and people just keep piling them instead of getting a new bag to throw the trash. There were other trash items such as diapers, boxes of alcohol and sodas, and a full pizza box. These items should not be on the beach at all. People are lazy, do not care about the environment, and do not realize the harm they are putting on animals. The most shocking thing I found was a ditch that was full of garbage. Just trash and trash piled together. It was a disgusting and disturbing view. I couldn't believe that people could live like that. Eventually the trash would end up in the ocean and animals would confuse trash for food. Animals have been found dead because of hazardous waste inside their stomachs. Plastic caps look edible for animals but they cannot tell the difference if it is food or not. Cleaning the beach was a life changing experience. I use to be one those people who would litter trash and wouldn't car. Now I am cautious and keep the animals in my mind. On my next trip to the beach if i see some trash on the floor, I'm not going to ignore but instead pick it up. I know picking up a little bit of trash isn't a lot but it is something. And something matters!

Heal The Bay!

Heal the Bay was such a great experience. I never knew how much trash could actually end up on the beach. There was a lot of trash that was stuck in the bushes and scrubs along the side of the road. A lot of the trash we picked up were cigarette buds and styrofoam pieces. All of the trash there were things that could have easily been put in a bin and avoided ending up on the floor. Most of the trash at Dockweiler was there because people kept piling and over flowing trash bins that eventually caused the trash to fall out. I found a plastic bottle that was trapped in a bush and realized that if a heavy storm were to hit, it would most likely end up in the ocean like a lot of the trash near the shore. We shouldn't even be drinking from plastic bottles because of the BPA poisoning it contains. I learned that most of the trash that ends up in the ocean, animals can confuse as food. There have been many cases were animals die of plastic poisoning because their digestive systems are not made to break down plastic. Plastic bottles are not only bad for our health, but also the health of marine animals. By making sure I properly disposed of the plastic bottle, I knew I was doing my part in saving a marine animal. It makes me realize and raise awareness that there are still many other beaches that have the same issue, not just the one we cleaned. I'm very glad I got to be a part of Heal the Bay! Now next time I go to the ANY beach, I won't just be getting in the water, I'll help clean it!

Laziness...is Fatal

Laziness…is Fatal

Hello everyone, my name is Antony Ghobrial and I am part of the English 101 course at Cal State La. As a class, we all went to Dockweiler Beach to clean it from many things like beer caps, glass bottles, cigarette butts, and many more miscellaneous items. I was astonished by how many cigarette butts there were considering the beach is a no smoking environment. There were chip bags and paper plates that covered up everything. I found a lot of things that should not have been there to begin with. There are many young children at the beach on a daily basis. If there are broken glass bottles then a fun experience at the beach could end up in the hospital. Animals are like little children, they do not understand what is right from wrong. If a seal finds a plastic bag, who is going to tell it that that is not a jelly fish? No one will, the seal will eat it and die. People do not usually think in the future. They mostly think about the here and now. If a common person sees that the trash can is too far away, they many just throw it on the floor due to their laziness. The reason why we cleaned the beach was very simple. We attempted to clean the amount of garbage found all over the beach so that more trash can end up in a trash bin and not in the ocean. I learned that when I am at the beach and I see trash, even if it is not mine, I should still pick it up because that tiny amount of effort can and more than likely will save an animal's life.

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. :)

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. ------------->