BERKELEY -- Thousands of people turned out across the Bay Area Saturday for an early celebration of Earth Day, planting trees, recycling e-waste, making art, and more.

There were more than 100 pre-Earth Day events, with some setting records for numbers of volunteers.

In an Oakland park, volunteers dug up space for new plants, while in an urban creek, other volunteers removed cigarettes, glass, bottles, cans, spray paint cans, and other litter.

One young man said he was there to help save the lives of ducks.

“I came to clean, it’s Earth Day,” said Shermon Freeman, of Oakland. “I don’t want ducks dying because people are littering in the creek.”

“It’s a way to connect with other people in the community,” said City of Oakland employee Ali Schwarz. “It’s a way to help people really learn to appreciate plants and creeks.”

City officials said this year’s Earth Day events attracted a record 4,000 volunteers.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, an Earth Day event taught attendees the merits of eco-friendly e-recycling. Volunteers here mounded pounds and pounds of computers, equipment and other electronic waste onto pallets.

“Every little bit you can do helps,” said Ankur Bhatia, of San Francsico, “so this is one thing that we could do today and we’re here for that.”

At Goodwill, staff said they collected some 33,000 pounds of e-waste.

“It’s going to be helping the digital divide by letting us resell them to people who don’t have computers,” said Goodwill’s Holly Goodliffe. “Or just make sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill and hurt the earth.”

At Stinson Beach, five-year-old Kumal Gupta was busy making a green peace symbol.

“My ma and pa gave me a little help,” he said. “Very little… and I made this. Earth Day is a great day; it’s a day where we make some things, masterpieces and everything.”

Gupta joined some 50 others at Stinson Beach who were celebrating Earth Day by creating art from the earth.

“Through my environmental art,” said Zach Pike, “my feeling was if I could make people feel about the earth the way I feel about it when I make my art, that would be a good way of celebrating Earth Day.”

The art included everything from a sand and rock dragon to more abstract pieces symbolizing nature and the earth. Organizer Pike taught people to make sand balls.

“Even a young child took one and put it in the hand of a mermaid and said the mermaid is holding the earth,” he said. “So to me that’s a mark of the success of the event… that he felt he was holding the earth and he wanted to hand it off to this mermaid. That’s great.”