Los Angeles River Cleanup

Los Angeles River Cleanup

Hi, my name is David and I am currently taking ENGL101 with Professor Hernandez. I participated in the Los Angeles River Cleanup organized by FOLAR on April 23, 2016. Before arriving to the event, I thought I was going to the wrong direction because at one point, my GPS gave me an odd direction. When I arrived at the event, there were many cars behind me entering the parking lot. I had a few friends who were participating in this event as well, however, we didn't plan a meet up nor did we contacted each other. I followed few of the volunteers to the bridge area where all the other volunteers were at. 

There were so many people there and I didn't see any familiar faces.   I was standing there alone waiting for the event to start, however, a couple of my classmates showed up then we all got together as a group and worked together. As we headed down to the where the trees were, we started to find pieces of trash everywhere. There were also a lot of papers stuck onto the trees and it was difficult to get out. At first, I thought they were being tied around to hold on to the trees but then they were actually trash. As we were picking up trash along the way, I found a lot of odd items; like CD's, sweaters, glass, etc. 

I normally would just sleep in on a Saturday morning, however after I participated in the L.A. River Cleanup, I felt like I had done something good to my community. It was nice seeing many other people helping out as well like there were families who also brought their younger children with them. There were also a lot of elderly people helping out as well. A lot of people do not know that the L.A. River existed nor did they even know where it was located. After volunteering, not only was I only help cleaning up the river, but also enjoying the time at the river. Although we are in a drought, I am glad to see that is an active river still flowing. I would like to attend one of these river cleanups again in the future.