This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Video: Thousands Clean Up Beaches

Armed with nothing more than their gloved hands and grabbing tools, volunteers collected tons of trash.

Thousands of Southern California residents participated in the 22nd annual Coastal Clean-Up Day at more than 60 locations Saturday. Armed with nothing more than their gloved hands and a grabbing tool, volunteers—who ranged in age from the very young to the more mature—collected tons of trash. Not all of these people were at the beach; many cleaned up their favorite lake, stream or pond.

Paul Working, of Catch-22, manned a booth at Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. Working has participated in the clean-up for the past seven years, and looks forward to the event every year. 

"We've collected over seven tons of trash on average each year," he said Saturday. "So far today, we've collected everything from cans and plastic bottle to a hypodermic needle."

Find out what's happening in Redondo Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The first Coastal Clean-Up was organized in October 1984 when  Oregonian Judie Neilson gathered 2,800 volunteers to clean up the beach. One year later, the concept spread down to California, where the California Coastal Commission's 1985 event featured 2,500 participants.

Heal the Bay took over the clean-up days in 1990.  

Find out what's happening in Redondo Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Larry Moore from Fish Talk Radio with Philip Friedman Outdoors said it was a good day.

"It's just good to be out here helping," said Moore. "I'm just hoping we can do this kind of thing every weekend as opposed to every year."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?