Written by Yvette Lau, Doris Guo (Class of 2027) and the DVGS Editorial Team
Photos by Selene Luong (Class of 2027), Emily Tan (Class of 2026), and Celina Li (Class of 2025)

On the bright morning of Saturday, September 23rd 2023, IGDVS headed to Lake Mendocino for the annual Ukiah Valley Russian River Cleanup. It was held from 8:30 A.M to noon.

The annual Ukiah Valley Russian River Cleanup (or simply Russian River Cleanup) is an activity sponsored by local environment reservation departments along with numerous local partners. Volunteers join the activity every year to improve their beloved environment—and have fun!

After the safety briefing and introductions, everyone was geared up with gloves, trash pickers and huge orange trash bags and were ready to go. Everyone was excited to start!

During the activity, we learned about helping the environment in a safe and professional way. Starting from what belongs to trash and what does not—a water plant that looked like a used plastic bag had caused quite a lot of discussions and laughter—to what kind of trash is potentially dangerous and needs to be dealt with in a cautious way. These precious experiences will surely benefit our future planet saviors!

Luckily, there weren’t many large objects such as tires and bicycles, but other trash was littered everywhere, such as cigarette butts, broken glass and food wrappers.

We managed to collect 35 pounds of trash, but the day wasn’t over yet! We headed to Anna’s Bistro for a celebratory lunch, which consisted of delicious sushi, sweet and sour vegetarian fish, fried rice, noodles and stir-fried vegetables.

This activity was a great way to connect with nature and have fun while making improvements to the environment. Thank you to all who participated!