The CSUN women’s basketball team made a difference this past weekend, by getting involved in California Coastal Cleanup Day. The event took place at 69 inland and beach locations in Los Angeles; the Matador women focused on Balboa Park.

It was a record-setting event. A record number of people—14,038 in all— cleaned up beaches, parks, alleys, creeks and storm drains around Los Angeles, from 9 a.m. to noon.

The California Cleanup Day brought out different groups including churches, schools and sports teams. Together, they all helped remove 300,413 pounds of trash and recyclables.

Matador forward-guard Katrina Thompson was shocked at the variety of people.

“There were tons of people from the community,” she said. “They had elementary schools there, Coke was there — there were a lot of different types of groups there.”

Not only did the event set records, but a celebration also occurred. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Coastal Cleanup Day.

California Coastal Commission started the event in 1985. Ever since then, more than 800,000 volunteers from California have been part of it. Together, they have all contributed to cleaning up 13 million pounds of debris from our state’s shoreline and coast.

Bianca Davies, a junior forward on the CSUN basketball team, commented on the difficulty of the task at-hand.

“We got down and dirty,” Davies said. “We went down in the dirtiest place. It looked like there were dead bodies down there—and we cleaned and picked up everything. It smelled pretty bad, but we went down there. We helped clean it up; we did a pretty good job, and we brought in a lot of bags of trash.”

The event bonded the women together, according to senior Thompson.

“It was a good event, it helped us bond,” Thompson said. “We made a competition so we saw what group could get the most trash. Personally, I thought my group won. We tried filling the shopping carts with trash.

“This is the (best) bonding year since I have been here. Last year I thought we really bonded—and I didn’t think it could get any better, but this year we hang out more, we do more activities.”

The women’s basketball team opens its 2009-10 schedule on Nov. 1 with an exhibition contest against Cal Lutheran at the Matadome.