In honor of National Make a Difference Day, 185.27 pounds of trash was picked up from Natividad Creek Park recently. Habitat Stewardship project collaborated with Sustainable Monterey County community gardens and surrounding schools to clean the community.
Make a Difference Day is the largest day of community service in America, it is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of October. This year, it fell on Oct. 24 and 23 volunteers came out to Salinas to pick up trash and work in the Natividad community garden.
“Habitat Stewardship has been working with this park since there was only one tree here,” said Laura Lee Lienk, director of Habitat Stewardship project. “We have worked with the city of Salinas to pick up trash and plant trees for years… Now this park is for parties, hiking and enjoying yourself, we want to keep it that way. We are doing this for our future.”
The cleanup started at 10 a.m. with volunteers from both Cal State Monterey Bay and surrounding Salinas high schools participating. They were directed to grab gloves, a bucket or a bag and grabbers.
After they grabbed equipment, the volunteers grouped into teams of three to five and then started off in all directions. Some people picked up trash at the playground while others went straight to the creek.
“Our watershed is kind of uphill, so what happens is that when it rains all of the water that hits our streets, our concrete, it’s gathering all of the little tiny trash and everything, and then it goes into the creek, and then it floods, and it rains more, and it goes into the river, or it can go down into the ocean,” said Lucy Rodriguez, a third-year marine science major. “It goes from our streets to our creeks and parks to the rivers to the oceans. That’s why it’s really important that we start not just at the beach when we’re doing clean-ups. It’s really important to start off right here at home, because it all leads to the ocean at the end of the day.”
The first clean up lasted an hour and in that time volunteers found small pieces of plastic such as bottle caps, confetti and Capri Sun straw wrappers, throughout the park. When everyone came back together they decided to take a five-minute break before continuing work.
Volunteers were offered snacks and refills of water, while Lienk and Leticia Hernandez, founder of Natividad Creek Park community garden and learning lab, directed them to the community garden.
“Make a Difference Day is significant because it gives folks a day to come out and make a difference and a lot of it is volunteers and volunteer power has built this park,” said Hernandez.
“Volunteers have built the garden and so, the park really depends on having volunteers to clean up whether it’s trash or pulling weeds or laying some mulch. It’s a huge part of what keeps this place thriving and I think it’s what gives it community energy.”
The group of volunteers were broken up into two, about four people were directed to carry mulch over to the gardens. The rest were split between flattening out the mulch being placed and weeding the pathways in the community garden.
“I’ve heard of this park, but I just heard they do some small cleanups. I didn’t realize that they also do some gardening here, so that was a fun thing to find out and work in,” said Daniel Vidal, a fourth-year ecology major. “Since there’s a lot of kids here, the garden shows how you get your fruits and vegetables. It’s definitely important and starts the path for those that are curious about environmental stuff.”
Following the weeding, volunteers were directed back to picking up trash again. Gardening tools were put away and the grabbers, buckets and bags were retrieved from the organizers.
However, instead of letting them spread all along the park, volunteers were instructed to go closer to the creek and head toward a bridge. Trash clean up continued for another 45 minutes, where plastic bags, pieces of clothes and glass bottles were picked up in and around the creek.
When all the volunteers were finished, the trash was collected and weighed. To wrap up the clean up, Lienk had them create a circle and share what they wished to see more of in the world. People gave out a variety of answers from peace to happiness and even cleaner air. Lienk told them they were the people able to create those futures they want to see.