Downey held a “Keep Downey Beautiful Clean-up” on March 18 at 9 a.m. at Downey’s City Hall.

The event aimed to see 50 to 70 volunteers, said Lisa Fox, an event coordinator that helped host the event and works for the City of Downey Public Works Department.

Fox shared that one of her inspirations in helping with the event was to keep Downey beautiful by picking up litter.

“It’s really become an issue, not just our city, but also other cities,” Fox said, “So the city puts on this event every month.”

To help ensure the safety of the volunteers, each is given safety vests, gloves, trash bags and masks.

Fox explained that the way areas are chosen for clean-ups is that they drive around the city to see which areas need it most, areas such as railroad tracks which where the event took place, are usually good spots to clean up.

One of the volunteers, Michele Frase who resides on Lakewood Blvd., has become a regular participant in events that help keep the city clean.

Frase is passionate about making a difference in the city by helping it stay clean and making it a nice place to live in and visit.

The Downey resident said she found a large tumbleweed blocking the sidewalk, which could have been hazardous for someone handicapped, who could’ve been forced to go around it and onto oncoming traffic.

With this in mind, Frase believes events like this also help keep the community safe.

Kano Falie, a student who lives in the City of Bellflower, attended the event with some of his friends, who encouraged him to participate in similar events in the past.

Falie’s finds satisfaction and fulfillment in helping clean up the environment and he also wants to fulfill his 20-hour community service requirement for his AVID program.

“It was pretty fun,” Falie said, “We would […] walk down the neighborhoods and like clean up the trash there.”

Victor Noriega, one of Falie’s friends who also attended the event said, “There’s a lot of trash everywhere that needs to get picked up.”

Noriega also shared that he does his part in conserving water by using reusable water bottles and taking timely showers.

After 45 minutes, everyone returned to the event’s start to put back their borrowed equipment and dispose of the trash they had collected.

Each participant was given free water bottles, a donut and a raffle ticket.

Shortly after, Fox did some raffle drawings and some volunteers won free Cotton On gift cards.