Heal the Bay Day

My name is Eduardo I. Carrion and I am in English 2030 taught by Ximena Hernandez. I volunteered for the Heal the Bay event that happened on Saturday. I helped create a safer environment that will not only help the oceanic and coastal wildlife, but as well as making the Earth less polluted. I was in charge of tallying different categories of plastics, metals, and foams that we collected throughout the day. In our finding we saw that there was an abundance or cigarette buds thrown on the floor, as well as metal bottle caps. I later changed roles to pick up trash that I found on the beach and it was hard to do under the hot sun but it was a job that I enjoyed doing nonetheless. I was surprised at the amount of trash that my team was able to pick up. We filled up three buckets full of trash in the first thirty minutes of beginning the cleanup. We found wine bottles, beer bottles, beer cans small plastic, metal, and foam pieces, and also a whole bucket full of cigarette buds.

One step at a time

Hello my name is Leonel Arriola and I participated in Heal the Bay event on September 17, 2016. I was not surprised that the our local beaches were polluted, in fact this is the very reason I stopped going to the beach five years ago because of the amount of pollution found in the water as well as on land. Given that this was an event where we were able to aid our beaches in collecting the tiny bits of plastics as well as the immense amount of cigarette butts, this was an event where I could not simply turn my back to.

From afar the beach may look clean but as one begins to scan the sand they are walking on you will spot a variety of pollutants that may seem harmless but in fact are damaging the ecosystem. Unfortunately many of this pollutants are confused by seagulls that pick up the tiny plastics that are laying on the sand. Wrappers are carried away by the seagulls and fed to others or it may even be blown away into the ocean where other marine life may confuse it and consume it. Although the future may seem bleak, there is still an opportunity to correct our way of life that does not harm the environment.

Hello, my name is Stephanie Godina and I participated in the Heal the Bay clean up this past Saturday September 17, 2016. When we first arrived to Santa Monica we began walking trying to look for the Heal the Bay booth in which our professor was located in. On our way to look for the booth we stumbled against a small gym looking place where they have equipment to exercise. My friends began to climb the long rope that they had there. Both of my friends were able to reach to the top. After both of my friends got down we continued on or journey to find our professor. Once we found our professor we immediately began to get a clear understanding of the whole clean up process and began to receive our hand stamps. Once we received our first two stamps we then received another stamp because we went through any safety procedures. After the safety procedures were done, then we received our supplies and began to pick up any trash we saw. My group and I decided to walk from the booth to the pier and from the pier back and hopefully filled out our time. On our way to the pier we began to collect trash, and most of it was wrappers and cigarette butts. The weather was nice at first but after a while the heat began to increase, halfway towards the pier I was already starting to sweat. There were three strange objects that we encountered, in my opinion. As my group and I continued walking towards the pier, we found a towel but then we began to dig a little deeper and found one of those small boogie boards. The other object we found was once we arrived at the end of the pier, and the object was an ethernet cable. The picture on the right shows one of my friends holding up the cable. Towards the end of the clean up we tallied up all of the trash that we have collected and turns out to be that we collected more cigarette butts rather than any other type of trash. We collected a total from around 110 to 120 cigarette butts. After we tallied up all of the trash that we collective we turned it in to the volunteers that were gathering back the supplies that were given to us from the beginning of the event. From there, my group and I left and even when we walked back, we still continued to see trash on the ground.

Greetings and salutations, my name is Michelle Millan. I'm a freshman at Cal State LA and enrolled in professor Hernandez's English 1005A class. I'm here to write about my experience at the beach clean up. On a hot sunny morning, I arrived at the beach unprepared. I came with black pants and converse, thinking it would be cold since it was pretty early in the morning....for me at least. I kept wondering what kinds crazy things I could find on the beach. One of the crazy things my group and I found was a chunk of wood (second picture), it was probably almost as heavy and thick as a textbook. Cigarettes and pieces of plastic were one of the things we collected the most. I wondered what made people want to smoke on the and just litter on the beach. There were so many cigarettes, we put an infinity sign because no matter what we were always going to find an infinite number of cigarettes butts on the beach. Regardless of how much work I put in picking up pieces of cancer (cigarettes butts) and pieces of plastic and trash, I felt like I did my part in helping at the beach clean-up. It was great to first hand experience seeing all the trash at the beach and how it can affect our environment. 

Santa Monica isn't clean.

      My name is Lazaro Cano-Hernandez and I participated in the Heal the Bay event in Santa Monica on September 17th, 2016. I participated because is was a requirement for my english 2030. When I arrived to Santa Monica I told myself "the beach is clean, it's a waste of time." To my surprised, the beach was filled with small plastic pieces, cigarettes butts, and more trash that can harm our eco systems. I was also surprise to find trash on the sand when there was literally a trash can a couple feet away. Like for real are people that lazy to walks 3 extra steps to throw their trash away. My group and I found a lot of disturbing trash on the sand that is unsanitary such like condoms and rip underwear. I mean all that can go into the ocean and since the fish don't know what it is. They will assume is food in eat it now, that will cause them to die slowly.Not only am I upset with humanity but am disappointed  how we as humans aren't doing anything about it but a few. 

Hello there! My name is Allen Dumaua, I am a student from Ximena Hernandez's English 2030 class. I have recently participated in the Heal the Bay community service event on Saturday September 17, 2016. It was at the Santa Monica beach and we were tasked with picking up the various trash that people leave behind on the beach. Now I know that people usually visit a beach to have fun with friends or family but I have really enjoyed this experience of cleaning up the beach. Prior to going to this event our class watched a documentary on plastic and how tons of it has accumulated in the ocean, so I was expecting to find a lot of plastic during my trash scavenger hunt. what surprised during my time there wasn't the sheer amount of plastic I found, but the amount of cigarette butts I found along the shore. When you really take your time to look and pick up trash it changes your perspective on how much we humans pollute our environment. I got a realization on how bad our situation is. During my time there we have picked up over a hundred cigarette butts and a few hundred plastics. I was in awe with how much we have picked up because we only covered a short area in a short time now if you calculate that will how long the beach is and other beaches the amount of trash is exceptionally high. In addition most of the plastics my group and I have encountered were small pieces of trash. And according to the documentary we watched, "Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch," it was the small plastics that do the most harm in the ecosystem. Not only do the plastic attract harsh chemicals but small animals actually end up eating the plastic thinking it is food and when those animals get eaten they too retain the plastic since it won't decompose. And from there it just keeps going higher in the food chain and maybe in your food one day. It really is scary to think about all these things that are happening but this is the harsh reality of it. That is why we need to prioritize healing our world from all that we have done to hurt it. Some may believe that even if they try it won't make a difference but I believe that that way of thinking is what got us into this mess in the first place. That is why I encourage others to help out our environment and further develop ways we can save it for our future kids and future generations to come. I am very grateful for this important experience so thank you professor Hernandez.

Hello! my name is rongfeng tan, i am in Ximena Hernandez 1005A English class. i join heal the bay even in Saturday 17. we start to clean up at 9:00 am. in the beginning, we listen to the instructor about what should we do and not to do. at the first sigh, there is so many trash can lining up at the beach, but we still can find a lot cigarette butts and some plastic bag. we only pick up the trash above the stand, but who know how many trash are hiding under the sand. what if there is broken glass under the sand and people just step right on the glass with their bare feed? this even is very valuable life lesson, we all should do something for our nature. because once our nature gone, it never comes back.