This was my third year in a row helping the Friends of The L.A. River organization to document their clean-up.

It is unbelievable the amount of trash volunteers collect every time they are called to participate in these events. I have seen mattresses, personal computers, shopping carts, televisions, clothes, and car parts, just to name a few things that nobody would expect to find near the river.

This year I went to Arroyo Seco where a bunch of kids had a lot of fun cleaning up the river as you can see in the pictures. Their enthusiasm was noticeable. They made jokes about everything.

The following weekend I went to the clean-up that took place in Long Beach (see photos below). The experience was very different. The number of volunteers was way bigger than the one at the Arroyo Seco location and I couldn’t perceive people having fun at all or even enjoying the experience a little bit, however, it was good to see parents taking their little children to the event.

Ralph.