It was a cold, rainy day, and perfect for the beginning of a murder mystery. Body found in the woods by the river would have been a great headline, but it was not to be. On Tuesday 27th of February, Eight 5th graders, accompanied by Ms Marchetti and eight 11th and 12th graders accompanied by Mrs Montalbano, worked on an after-school project to clean up the banks of the River Colne in Hillingdon, at the Colne Valley Park, just off the Cowley Road Industrial area, downstream from Middlesex college. Despite the rain, the 5th graders were in high spirits, which was contagious. After a brief health and safety talk from Matthew Loveday, the leader of the group from Thames 21 the charity that organized the clean-up especially for students from ACS Hillingdon, we were given rubber gloves, rubber boots, litter pickers and nets and set to work. While one little 5th grade boy was disappointed not to find a bomb, students were amazed at the variety of objects picked off the river bank or taken from the river and adjoining mill: bed sheets, plastic tarpaulins, plastic bags and over 200 Pepperami wrappers, some of them still with their contents, plastic bags, sandwich containers, bottles, both empty and full, a large For Sale sign, Styrofoam, clothes, both under and over and many other useless bits of debris were carefully placed in black bin bags, ready for collection by Hillingdon Council. We filled 23 rubbish bags and 8 green bags of drink cans which were to be recycled were. In all a very rewarding experience, especially since the end result was so clearly appreciable. As it was getting dark two white swans sailed by, obviously grateful for their cleaner environment.