Written by Natalie Phuong (Class of 2030) and Iris Wei (Class of 2029)
Photos by Selene Luong (Class of 2027) and Anna Huang (Class of 2026)

On the morning of Saturday, September 20th, 2025, IGDVS headed to Lake Mendocino for the annual Ukiah Valley Russian River Cleanup.

The Russian River Cleanup is sponsored by local environmental conservation departments along with numerous community partners. Every year, volunteers join in to care for their beloved environment—and have fun doing it.

After the safety briefing and introductions, everyone geared up with gloves, trash pickers, trash bags, and buckets, ready to go. We started along the roadside near the bridge, picking up litter blown around by the wind. Besides the usual plastic bags, bottles, and papers, we also found stranger items like a few shopping carts and even a single shoe. Other volunteers helped haul the shopping carts out of the bushes.

After an hour of collecting trash, we rested in the shade of a tree to drink some water and eat oranges. For the final stretch, we moved on to the train station. There wasn’t much garbage there, but surprisingly, we spotted a few trays of dog food and an old bike.

By the end, we had filled nearly thirty trash bags. Then we headed to Anna’s Bistro for a celebratory lunch of delicious sushi, sweet and sour vegetarian fish, fried rice, noodles, vegetables, and sparkling water. Cheers!

This activity was a wonderful way to connect with nature and have fun while making improvements to the environment.