I will volunteer for the Corona Temescal Wash clean up. It lasts about 4 hours and is set up by the city of Corona.

Temescal Wash is in Corona, California.

Saturday October 22, 2011. From 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.

We will walk around the wash and pick up trash that has been brought into the watershed by rain.

The city of Corona's officers in charge of putting this together.

Four hours in total.

To help clean up the watershed and to become more aware of what is actually polluting the environment.

The Public Works Department of the City of Corona

Ken Pitts, AP Environmental Science and Honors Biology Teacher at Santiago High School.

2011-10-22

2011-10-22

4 hours

At the said location, I was assigned to pick up trash that was washed into the area. The area had not been "cleaned-up" since the last clean up which was around a year ago. The heavy rains of the past year were not good to the region, the place was littered with pile of trash everywhere; anywhere you looked, there was trash. The area has two sides to it. When I first arrived, i decided to go to the right side. I went to the volunteer station, turned in my paperwork and began my job, to fill up a plastic bag with trash that was littering the Temescla area. I picked up trash for a good 2 hours. Then, after realizing there were way to many large pieced laying around, the group I was with decided to bring in the large pieces. That was not a walk in the park. Taking a shopping cart out of the ground has to be the most difficult things i have ever done in my entire life. But it was worth it. After doing so, we all returned to the volunteer area and were instructed to fill out surveys that tallied what we had picked up. I was suprised after doing so, how much I had actually done.

I picked up 4 bag filled with trash. These bags were not filled halfway, they were stuffed. Even all the volunteers had done so, the area was still pretty trashed. But, I still felt a bit accomplished. I took one shopping cart out of the ground, and as I said, was not an easy task. I also brought in another shopping cart that was just laying around. We brought in two large tire that had been washed up and at least 4 shoes. There were many articles of clothing lying around, we bravely picked them up and brought them in.

I learned that our trash is slowly degrading and deteriorating the environment. We hear people state"our trash is everywhere" and then look around to our clean streets, our clean homes, and our clean parks, what can we do other than to ignore it? It isn't affecting our city, our streets, our parks, our homes, or our lives, so why care? Why should we try to do something like spend our time doing something that doesn't benefits us? Well, if we don't, we will soon be living in our trash. Have you ever heard the saying "don't bite the hand that feed you"? Humans need to stop biting the earth's hands. According to wisegeek.com, the average person creates 4.4 pounds of waste a day, a total of 29 pounds a day, and 1600 pounds a year. That is way to much for our planet to handle. Through this Experience I learned that I need to live a greener life. I may be one person, but the world will be a slightly less trashier and healthier place for our gentry.

Temescal Wash, Corona CA