Eastside Volunteers Help Coastal Cleanup
More than 100 Eastside students, families and staff gathered at Cooley Landing in East Palo Alto in the dark and cold morning of Sept. 18 to help pick up trash as a way to prevent harm to local sealife.
Students worked in groups and wore gloves and used trash pickers to fill up bags with plastic, glass and all other kinds of garbage as part of the California Coastal Cleanup Day. Each group was given a sheet to collect the data of the trash they collected.
The event was successful, according to senior Christopher Guerrero, president of Interact Club, which organized the event for Eastsiders.
“Over 100 people in the community showed up which was surprising because lot’s of people are always focused on other things,” he said.
In addition to the 104 Eastsiders, 60 Grassroots Ecology members and Boy Scouts also volunteered for the cleanup. Volunteers covered 10 miles and collected 500 pounds of trash, including three big tires and metal, according to Interact Club adviser and Art teacher, Linda Filo.
The Interact Club has organized Eastside participation in Coastal Cleanup most years in the past, until COVID-19 made it impossible last year. This year, all students and families wore masks, as they worked at a safe distance from each other.
The organization Grassroots Ecology gave each volunteer a metal straw as a thank-you for helping the community.
