Valerie Read, Capistrano Beach
We live near Pines Park in Capistrano Beach and enjoy seeing young people come to be photographed on Prom night and other big events. The girls arrive in tiny short dresses and impossibly high heels, the boys in some version of a tuxedo, with tennies and embarrassed grins.
In February, students from San Clemente High arrived en masse, and the park looked like a disaster zone after they left, with corsage boxes, raffia, excelsior, ribbons and dead flowers everywhere. The trash cans were filled to overflowing, and the rest of the detritus was widespread across the lawn. Weeks later there were still bits and pieces in the grass.
This last Saturday San Clemente High came again, and they must have gotten the memo. Almost everything was picked up, put into the trashcans or piled nearby. Only a few stray items dotted the grass. The change was dramatic, and we neighbors were pleased to see the difference.
Pines Park is the site of many events, like weddings, memorials, meetings, tai chi, athletes balancing on slack lines, family picnics, couples courting, sunset viewers, football throwing, bocce ball games, people with their dogs, as well as handsome prom-goers being photographed in such beautiful surroundings.
If each of us leaves the park as nice as we found it, it will continue to be a place of beauty for us all. Thanks, San Clemente High—keep it up.
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