LA River Cleanup

Hello,
My name is Ulysses Ng and I participated in the FoLAR River Cleanup on Earth Day of 2017. I remember the days of my childhood where my friends and I would ride our bikes up and down the path of the LA River and simply enjoy ourselves. These memories glamorized the Los Angeles River to my eyes, but on Saturday I looked at it in a new perspective. Being there on Earth Day, cleaning the river alongside my classmates, and seeing everyone struggling to beautify the river brought to my attention how much harm we as humans are causing to our environment. I walked down the concrete slope into a bed of rocks and saw the potential our river has to offer. As I walked

over and around the stones looking for trash to collect, I saw a giant bed of mud with a rug sticking out of it. I walked over and attempted to pull it out. After multiple attempts at full strength and it still not coming out, I gave in and looked for other things to trash. One thing that really came to my attention was when I was collecting trash and I noticed a gum wrapper on the floor. This is a wrapper that was folded the exact same way I'd normally fold it when I finished chewing my gum. It made me question, "Why would  a gum wrapper be all the way over here in the LA River?" I questioned this because it made me wonder if that could have been my wrapper, and if it were it'd be ridiculous because I don't normally chew gum in the LA River, meaning that the trash I leave at my home could have still found it's way to the river.