“VNA interns take one class during the summer, and then that class has to work together to make an event. We organized the ‘Clean it or Drink it‘ event,” Zhang said.

The VNA class and its mentors held this collaborative event with the Santa Clara Valley Water District at Kelley Park in order to inform others about the importance of water conservation and the threat of water pollution. Guest speakers, representatives from the Water District and students from the VNA class, all presented.

“A lot of [what the presentations talked about] was common sense,” senior Daniel Yang said. “But people don’t take [water conservation] seriously enough. For example, sometimes MVHS keeps its sprinklers on too long. We should turn them off if we’re not using them.”

Afterwards, the attendees of the event went to clean up Coyote Creek in Kelley Park. This creek is especially vulnerable to water pollution. Storm drains feed into the waters, which funnel litter in from nearby streets. Fallen trees stuck in the creek keep trash from flowing farther down. So before cleanup, the surface ofthe creek’s water was covered with trash.

“There was trash buried underground too. The older members had to dig around, while we waited and sorted out the trash,” Yuna Lee said.

Participants filled several large trash bags and found many newspapers, eight tires, a bath tub and a couch. By the end of the two hour clean up session, about 150 bags of trash were hauled out of the creek.

To help keep Coyote Creek and other bodies of water clean, Zhang recommends switching to a more efficient shower system, turning off the water when not in use and using environmentally safe car wash soap.