Although all of us Court members have been so busy with gearing up for back to school or working our day jobs, we managed to get together on such a beautiful day to do a bit of community service in Oakland for our monthly community service project. Lake Merritt may seem absolutely spotless at first glance, but we all noticed that there was still some work to be done. Aside from the many cigarette butts thrown carelessly on the ground, there was still some trash around the lake. Lake Merritt is a nice place for a picnic, get together, or nice jog in the great outdoors, but that also makes way for a lot of littering and trash left behind. This is obviously bad for the environment but also for the ecosystem in that area. In just a short amount of time, I couldn’t help but revert to making observations my major taught me. As an environmental earth science major, I noticed how much nature and wildlife inhabits Lake Merritt. The birds, trees, swans, dogs etc. are all affected by the trash and debris that people carelessly leave behind. Humans, too, of course are also a part of this equation in creating the problem as well as being affected by it. Though it may have seemed like an insignificant action of cleaning up Lake Merritt, I know that every little step counts and helps work towards significant progress in creating a better, cleaner Earth!
What a nice way to get in a nice walk around the lake with my sisters while doing the environment some good! I could not think of a more enjoyable way to do community service.