This Academy of the Canyons senior student noticed there was trash along the trails of Towsley Canyon and the Rivendale Open Space area when he and his family would go hiking together. Rather than just walking past it, Albert Zheng took the initiative to start a Santa Clarita Valley branch of the Community for Holistic Education and Empowerment of Civic Responsibility, also known as SCV CHEER.  Zheng said his parents introduced him to the Northridge branch of CHEER when he was in the sixth grade. There he began to volunteer his time to help clean up trash from open space areas and host community events. When he started school at AOC, he decided to start CHEER projects in the Santa Clarita Valley.   “There were a lot of cleanup events already happening in the Northridge area, but I noticed that there were a lot of people from the Santa Clarita Valley participating in them,” said Zheng. “But there wouldn’t be many events because it wasn’t very convenient to go. So, we, the members from the Santa Clarita Valley, decided we can focus on the Towsley Canyon area and other places like that where we noticed there needed to be change.”   With the nonprofit organization’s focus being on environmental beautification and community events, Zheng had SCV CHEER partner with the city of Santa Clarita to host community cleanups and help with cultural events.   Clean-up event at Rivendale Open Space and Trail. Courtesy of Albert Zheng In 2023, he said, the organization helped the city with its “Celebrate” series by hosting three booths during the last day honoring China. Biweekly to monthly, the organization will host cleanups at different trails, mountains, parks, and street sides throughout Santa Clarita.   Juliet Fine, principal of AOC, wrote in a prepared statement that the SCV CHEER team has removed over 2 tons, or 4,000 pounds, of trash from 15 key locations, including the Rivendale Open Space, Chuck Pontius Commuter Trail, Valencia Interstate 5 freeway entrance, and the Santa Clara River.   She added that Zheng led SCV CHEER’s recycling initiative in 2022, to have students and families collect recyclables from home, neighbors and cleanup sites. The organization was able to raise more than $1,000 from over 20,000 recyclables to fund essential supplies like trash pickers, gloves and bags for their cleanup days.   And in June 2024, the program evolved into a recycling fundraiser for the Children’s Hunger Fund, raising $3,000, providing 216 Food Paks benefiting 12,000 hungry children globally while continuing to beautify the local environment.  Recycling Fundraiser for Children’s Hunger Fund. Courtesy of Albert Zheng To honor Zheng’s initiative, Fine nominated him for recognition by the city of Santa Clarita for his outstanding leadership, community service, and environmental advocacy through SCV CHEER.  “It feels really nice. We’ve been doing CHEER for a long time, and we haven’t been noticed as much but by partnering with the city and doing activities with the city we developed a really strong connection to SCV,” said Zheng.   To him, what makes his organization special is the sense of community the members have with one another. Besides working together to better Santa Clarita, he said a majority of the members are made up of other middle schoolers and high schoolers who also bring their families so there are different people constantly showing up and helping.   “I think if you want a chance to get started in some form of community service, especially if you want to have a direct impact on your community, we do a lot of hands-on activities,” he said.  Zheng said SCV CHEER is always open for new members to join who want to help, and the more members they get to participate ,the more of an impact they will get to make.   The post AOC student leads the way with volunteerism   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.