Hands of the Community

On July 22nd, the weather is cool and the clouds cover the morning heat as PAVA volunteers gather in their yellow attire at the Bolsa Chica Conservancy. Around 300 PAVA members from Torrance to Victorville have gathered in order to conserve a saltwater marsh.

To prepare for the event some of the PAVA student leaders and members have gathered on July 18th to learn about the importance of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Eric Paquette, a senior program coordinator kindly lead the group into an orientation behind the history of the wetlands and the basic schedule for the Saturday event. After this informative meeting, I was aware of how significant it will be for PAVA to place their hands in conserving the Earth. Not only was this event going to be ecologically beneficial, it will also help give leadership skills to the student volunteers along with other skills.

Few days before the event, the PAVA office sent an email giving a captain opportunity to all of PAVA which I decided to sign up for. On the day of the event, captains were told to come by 8AM when the event was to start at 9AM so we could be informed about our team members. The overall preparation brought the event to run smoothly and offered an educational moment for the volunteers. Preston Park, a student from Crean Lutheran High School answered “That helping is good! And that you must care more for the environment” when he was asked what he has obtained from the event. One student from Fairfax High School, Ashley Park shared that “The most memorable thing was taking out weed to help the environment probably it felt pretty nice to know that what we were doing was making an impact in that area.” When the leadership behind the Bolsa Chica Conservancy came to encourage and thank the students the sense of community came to me.

I realized that even though we all came from different areas and for different purposes we all contributed to the big picture. If the captains were not placed then the volunteers would not have been able to go to the different areas to perform their tasks. Without the Bolsa Chica‘s staff we will not have food or drinks to refresh. No matter how small or big the task every hand that has helped this event happen is important.

The small act of picking up trash to pulling out the invasive species design the greater goal of conserving the environment. You can bring change since it all starts from one tiny spark to burn a whole forest. Not that I encourage forest fires... Anyways, you are important to the community since every hand can make a difference so go out there and make a change.

<Yehju Park, 12th Grade, Temple City HS>