Service Learning - FOLAR LA River Clean Up

                 

My view when I arrived.

Hi, my name is Zhitlaly Rosas, I am a freshman student at California State University Los Angeles. On April 22, 2017, my English class and others participated in the FOLAR river clean up. This was my first time going and knowing of this part of the LA River, I never thought there was more than what I usually see when I’m on the freeway and pass by the LA river. It was good to see all the people who came and participated. When I arrived, and saw the view where we had to get our tools it amazed me of how much trash there was especially on the trees. I felt good participating because it was another experience for me other than Heal the Bay. The first thing that I picked up when cleaning was plastic bags and clothes from the ground or the trees.

Flower growing out of cement

The spot where the ducks were swimming. 

One of the shopping carts left stuck there. 

 As I walked down to pick up trash, the closer I got the more I saw plastic bags and clothes on the trees. It was interesting to see how some clothes, bags, plastic objects, and Cheetos bag, were buried under the sand. It is sad to know that some of the trash that gets dump in the street end up in the river. Those weren’t the only objects buried there was also market carts, ropes, and plastic utensils. I saw a flower that grew out from the cement. Another, moment that caught my attention was that when picking up trash, there was like a part of the river that looked like a little pond and in that part, there were ducks swimming. I felt bad for the ducks because of the little pieces of trash that they had to swim in. If our trash bags got full we had to tie them up and put them on the side so that the trucks can pick it up. This event is something I would do again.