Long Beach participated in a statewide effort to protect and clean our environment from debris killing our marine life this past September 21st for Coastal Cleanup Day.
At the meeting points, volunteers were found under tents handing out gloves and trash bags for those ready to participate.
Lakewood High School freshman and coastal cleanup volunteer Valerie Alvarez woke up at 7 am on a Saturday to “Find a community service event or service thing that I actually like.”
Alvarez added, “I want to be a pediatrician, but I’ve always lived in Long Beach and come to the beach with my family so why not clean it?”
Many Long Beach residents were found arriving with kids and their own trash bags ready to partake at this years Coastal Cleanup Day.
Long Beach City College political science major Omar Ruiz joined the cleanup with his younger brother Rene Ruiz.
“I heard about the event through my aunt because she works here in Long Beach, and I thought it was something good to do,” said Omar Ruiz.
The political science major explained, “It really has nothing to do with my major but I love the beach, and Long Beach is the closest one to me”.
When asked if Coastal Cleanup Day was a sufficient effort to beautify and clean our community beaches LBCC student said “I honestly don’t think so, I would hope to see more local efforts for Long Beach because people don’t get to see how beautiful it actually is with all the litter.”
When asked about the event Rene Ruiz responded, “ I thought it was okay, they should make it more fun by bringing live music or something like that. I guess I would consider coming again next year, it really didn’t take long and it’s not that hard to clean the beach a little”.
Coastal cleanup day happens every third Saturday of September each year with volunteer spots all along the coast of California.
This year’s event featured six volunteer spots in the city of Long Beach.
Coastal Cleanup Day is an event that “welcomes more than 60,000 volunteers who will pick up hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash and recyclables from beaches, lakes, and waterways each year” according to coastal.ca.gov.