Hi my name is Kathleen Piril, I am in Professor Ximena Hernandez English 101 class. On Saturday May 18, 2013 my classmates and I got to be a part of an unforgettable experience. We made a difference in our environment by cleaning the LA river. I have never seen a part of the LA river where you can actually see trees and a part of wildlife. I was so amazed to see such a beautiful site. When arriving at Marsh Park I expected to see a mess and trash everywhere. It was not what I expected, there was not as much trash as I expected that it would have.
As my group and I started the clean up we noticed a lot of broken glass, cigarette buds, and plastic. I expected to see a disaster as we walked further and further down the river. We saw a shopping cart in the river but it was to heavy to pull out, I also noticed as I went towards the trees that there were some plastic bags and foam underground, and it seemed that they were stuck on the tree. If you looked closely you cans see all the trash around the river. The LA river is such a beautiful place but some people don't take the time to notice it and often don't care where their trash end up. This is where we have to make a change and be aware of where we are throwing away our trash. I felt happy to be apart of the LA river cleanup, to see people from the community come together to clean was great. It shows that we can make a difference in our environment. It was fun to get to meet new people that have the same interest as me. I learned to only use reusable bags to reduce plastic bags ending up in places like the LA river. This was an unforgettable day and I know I would like to help the FOLAR program again.