Dear Editor:Despite the hot weather, 106 volunteers came out for the annual cleanup day Heal the Bay and Keep Downey Beautiful held on Sept. 25. It was a great success. KDB coordinator Carol Rowland was waiting in the Rio San Gabriel Park parking area with a truckload of items needed for gathering trash: bags, trash pickup grabbers, bright orange vests and rubber gloves. We picked up trash along the Rio San Gabriel riverbed. Joining the volunteers were council members David Gafin and Mario Guerra, and graffiti removal specialist Lisa Fox. The volunteers picked up 65 large bags of trash (20 pounds per bag X 65 = 1,340 pounds of trash), two shopping carts, one air conditioner, blankets, diapers, eight feet of wire, broken boards, lots of broken glass and loads of cigarettes. This trash would have ended up in the ocean. Stonewood Center is the major sponsor for KDB cleanups. They provide their usual gift cards along with mugs provided by Mayor Anne Bayer, which are raffled off at the end of the cleanups. A huge thank you to all of you who came out for this important job. Your volunteerism is one of the reasons Downey is still a great place to live. Let's continue to keep Downey beautiful. -- Byron Dillon, Committee member, Keep Downey Beautiful

********** Published: September 30, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 24