Volunteers Gather to Beautify Sweetwater Channel in Chula Vista

SAN DIEGO - April 12, 2018 - PRLog -- More than 100 volunteers from the Rock Church and Living Coast Discovery Center joined forces to help clean up the Sweetwater River Channel in Chula Vista. It is one of 19 Rock Your City events the Rock Church has planned for 2018 to help impact the city of San Diego including Toys for Joy, our annual Christmas event.

Volunteers spread out over a half-mile in each direction and filled trash bags up with debris. They even hauled abandoned shopping carts to be returned to local businesses.103 volunteers served a combined 412 hours and filled an entire 40 yard trash bin to the top with trash from the Sweetwater Channel. The channel is located under the 54 Freeway and it is the home of many homeless individuals in the South County of San Diego.  The Rock Your City event benefitted the community by helping keep the channel clean and by preventing all the trash from the channel from being dumped in Imperial Beach. The Rock Church decided to partner with the Living Coast Discovery Center because of their commitment to this area. They organize monthly cleanups. As the volunteers worked throughout the morning, they were cheered on by groups of cyclists riding by. They would shout, "Thank you so much for helping keep our trail clean." At one point, a garbage truck even drove by, honked and yelled, "Who's the Man?" and thanked the volunteers for their work.

Rock Church San Ysidro Campus Pastor, Travis Gibson, shares about how the Rock Your City events serves the community.

"As the Rock Church, we want to be more than just about Sundays. We want to be partnering with others to improve the community. We don't want people to just come to church. We want people to be the church and so we go to city officials and the Mayor and ask how can we use our greatest resource, volunteers to help the community."

Rock Your City was started in 2008. The Rock Church asked the Mayor how we as a church could help the needs of our community. He gave us a list of ways ranging from helping with clean ups at Balboa Park to beautifying fire stations throughout San Diego. We are celebrating 10 years of doing events like these. To date, the estimated value of the Rock Your City volunteers' efforts is $38,199,336. Each event hundreds of volunteers are mobilized to do everything from beautify parks and pick up trash to helping families in need.

Volunteers Mike and Keeley Zecca share on why they enjoy volunteering as a family. They have served at several Rock Your City events over the past few years with their four year old, Jack and they even brought their baby out in her stroller. Keely explains how she has seen it impact her son.

"We've seen that it is a great opportunity to teach our son about helping others and community responsibility. While it may be a challenge to get him to pick up his toys in his room, he enjoyed helping pick up trash in the community."

Mike adds, "The community of the church and the other volunteers that come out is special. Everyone wants to take care of each other and wants to serve the community."

Even if you missed this past Rock Your City event, make sure to sign up for the next one. Get your friends, family or small group and serve together.

For more info, visit www.sdrock.com