Amid all the noise about Fullerton’s looming budget deficit, there is one group of high-schoolers quietly improving our city’s famous trails – at zero cost to taxpayers!

You may have seen them walking the Bud Turner trail last Monday, picking up hubcaps, bumpers, and other trash and putting them into trash bags.
They are the Fullerton Coyotes Club. Dylan Ardaya founded the Coyotes with friends Ethan Yan and Fernando Muñoz to share his love of running and improve the health of Fullerton kids like himself. They shifted the focus to include trail cleanup when they discovered the fitness and beauty of Fullerton’s trails was equally important to them.

Currently, they try to do one to two cleanups a month. They range from ten to twenty volunteers per cleanup, but have had over 70 individuals participate in cleanups, according to Mr. Ardaya.

They started as a community-based club but have added chapters at Troy and Sunny Hills High Schools, along with some members from Fullerton College and Brea Olinda High School. They have a service-hour system in which they sign in and out and will share their hours with the Parks and Rec department upon request.

They have signed several Adopt-a-Trail and Adopt-a-Park agreements with the city. They have had two collaboration cleanups partnering with Councilman Ahmad Zahra, and plan to work with Friends of Coyote Hills this summer.

To join the club or get more information, go to their website at fullertoncoyotesclub.com. or email fullertoncoyotesclub@gmail.com.