FOLAR River Clean Up

Hello, my name is Alicia Brito and I am currently enrolled in English 1005B with professor Hernandez. On Earth Day, I had the opportunity to participate with FOLAR to clean up part of the Los Angeles River. My experience on this event was much different than any other clean up event. The first thing I notice was that there was a lot of plastic bags in between tress, I knew they have been there out in the sun for a long while because when I tried pick them up they would break of easily into smaller pieces. Another thing I notice was that there was a lot of homeless people living under a freeway bridge. I believe most of the shopping carts stuck halfway in the ground, clothes, and mattresses was coming from them. the most interesting part of the day was when I found a old Nokia phone, I think I can assume that phone has been in the river for a pretty long time because the company Nokia does makes those types of phones anymore. I believe it was stuck underground in the dirt for many years until it started to rain earlier this year it could travel with the current. Over all I think this experience was great because I have never seen the river up close to see that animals live in the river. Also, I really like that it was kid friendly they had FOLAR mascot, and the L.A. Rover to teach kids about the river. It made me feel great knowing that others and I were trying to clean up the mess left behind by ourselves and family to help reduce the pollution in our city.