Reported by Jerry Yang, #Hometown Sammamish Youth Action group – Habitat Restoration Project（#11）
On June 8th, 2025, AYLUS Lake Washington Branch members Jerry Yang, Kevin Chen, Constantine Ermolenko, Yuhan Song, Simon Song, Amanda Huang, Xiang Zhang, and Yuejing Luo volunteered at the Blackberry Removal Restoration at East Sammamish Park. During the 3 hour long event, our members helped remove invasive species of blackberries from the restoration, trimming down branches and pulling out roots. They also helped with cleaning tools, loading three tarp sheets each with around 40 pounds of plant material onto trucks, and packing up tents. As our members attended this event, we made connections with others and created a sense of community by working together, strengthening our bond to the environment. We used our social and environmental skills to improve our chemistry with others and remove a great mass of blackberry material efficiently from the restoration. Our members gained valuable skills from the event, learning how to work with various tools like hand pruners and enriching their knowledge about the community and environment.
Our branch members volunteered from 12:00am to 3:00pm, contributing a total of 24 volunteer hours:
Jerry Yang: 3 hrs
Kevin Chen: 3 hrs
Constantine Ermolenko: 3 hrs
Yuhan Song: 3 hrs
Simon Song: 3 hrs
Amanda Huang: 3 hrs
Xiang Zhang: 3 hrs
Yuejing Luo: 3 hrs
Location: East Sammamish Park, Sammamish, WA
Advisor on duty: Xiang Zhang
#Hometown Sammamish Youth Action group – Habitat Restoration Project（#11）