Coastal Cleanup Day to unite residents for work

A group of community members from the Newport-Mesa area is getting together to clean up areas around the Santa Ana River on Saturday morning in honor of the 24th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.

The volunteers will assemble at Vista Park in Costa Mesa and divide into smaller units that will work at three locations along the river, which empties into the ocean between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.

Everyone will meet at Vista Park, on the bluff overlooking the Santa Ana River where Victoria Boulevard intersects the river, at 9 a.m. Organizers are encouraging volunteers to wear comfortable clothes and closed-toed shoes.

The event is a local part of a long standing initiative founded by the California Coastal Commission that has coastal residents up and down the state picking up trash to keep the ocean clean.

For more information and a map of the cleanup sites visit www.earthresource.org.

— Alan Blank