Hello, my name is Vanessa Vazquez. I am a student from Professor Jenny Hicks English 95 class. On October 20th I participated in Heal the Bay and helped clean up Dockweiler Beach. It was my first time cleaning up a beach and my first time at a beach in Los Angeles. For my first time cleaning up a beach it was not that trashed as I expected or maybe it was because I had arrived late and everyone had cleaned up most of the trash already. I encountered small pieces of trash for trash such as bottle caps, ripped Styrofoam plates, pieces of coal, and cigarette buds. I even found a full and new water bottle buried in the sand and I thought to myself what a waste. . The reason behind why I found this types of trash was because there were a lot of fire pits where most likely families gathered and left such trash behind. As I walked more down I encountered a sewer and I felt grossed out because it was so filthy with mold and a plastic SOLO cup, plastic bags, and a potato chip bag. There were even poor seagulls that were walking around it, most likely searching for food. This made me realize the damage we do to our environment and especially animals because sometimes end up eating the trash we leave behind and get sick and sometimes end up dying. This experience is one of the experiences everyone should experience to not only help out our environment but, to be more aware of the harm we are doing to our environment. I believe seeing is believing and until people do not see the damages we are doing to our environment then they will never react and help keep it clean from pollution. Overall, I enjoyed helping clean up the beach it was better than I expected because I made new friends and it felt good to do something for our environment that we take for granted.