RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A good investment often requires thinking ahead and planning for the future. Rachael McElroy is a mother of two who made sure her two children, Dresdon and Inara, participated in the Great American Cleanup event in Riverside on Saturday, May 11.  

The McElroys are Riverside residents who are longtime volunteers when it comes to cleanup efforts in their community. They’ve been volunteering with Rivers & Lands Conservancy since 2015. On Saturday, the family helped the organization as it joined Keep Riverside Clean & Beautiful (KRCB) and about 1,000 other volunteers spend a few hours in the morning beautifying the city of Riverside. 

“We want them to see us modeling our expectations for them and the younger they are when they learn how to do it, the more they’ll likely do it on their own when they get older,” said McElroy.

Rivers & Lands Conservancy’s mission is to enhance the quality of life in its community by conserving open space, habitats, and agricultural lands through acquisition, stewardship, and community engagement. The organization primarily serves the lands, people, and wildlife of inland Southern California.

McElroy’s two children didn’t seem to mind being out early on a Saturday morning to serve their community. Their mother says they like to turn cleanup events into competitions to see who finds the biggest piece or weirdest piece of trash. Her kids say they’ve found hamster cages, tires, record players and TVs. 

The Santa Ana River is 96 miles long and is the largest river entirely within Southern California. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flowers for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through the Northern Santa Ana Mountains via Santa Ana Canyon and flowing southwest through urban Orange County to drain into the Pacific Ocean.

The river is a way for trash to flow through the three different counties and eventually end up in the Pacific Ocean. That was a big motivation for Rivers & Lands Conservancy to sponsor cleanup events to remove as much trash as they can along the Santa Ana River Trail. 

“Since we launched those cleanup events, we’ve engaged hundreds of volunteers. We’ve pulled out tons of trash, but above and beyond that measurable component of the actual volume of trash removed, our ultimate goal is to really provide meaningful connections with people in the natural world so that we’re hopefully inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards of people that’ll really care about these beautiful natural and wild open spaces within our community,” said Rachael Hamilton, an outreach coordinator for Rivers & Lands Conservancy. 

The McElroys were part of the group Hamilton led along the Santa Ana River Trail. They collected approximately 400 pounds of trash within an hour and a half. 

For more information about future cleanup events with Rivers & Lands Conservancy, visit: riversandlands.org