On a chilly morning Saturday, October 29th, 2011 at 8:00 AM, all 13 districts of PAVA (Pacific American Volunteer Association) members met up in Sunnynook Bridge to clean up the trash and anything that would pollute the river. The 13 Districts were separated in to 2 teams: A team and B team. A team had districts 2, 4, 6, and 10 while B team had the rest of the districts.
“I’ve found a mattress here and I thought how dirty this place was,” says Sang Wook Bae, a junior from Apple Valley High School. There was a volunteer from District 4 who picked up an unidentified object and said, “I think this is a half-broken keyboard.”
After a couple of hours, the volunteers had picked up nearly all the trash there was in the river and “it was the cleanest it has ever been,” says one of the people watching. “It kind of feels good to have picked up all this trash; it was a great experience,” says Justin Kim from District 6. “It better not get dirty again; now I realize that I shouldn’t litter,” says Sophie Kang from District 6.
The cleanup ended at 12:00 PM with a handful of people massaging their own legs as they walked back up from the river to the meeting area. Each district had brought food for their district. District 10 had donuts, eggs, apples, and Caprisun drinks. “I really wish I had something better than this after our hard work,” says Geon Woo Park, a junior from District 10.
Overall, the volunteers had a good experience and some realized the importance of the river and the importance of not littering.
