Instead of sleeping in, some USC students sprang into action using a class project to make a difference in for they are passionate about.
"We just care about the river a lot, we like being out here so we saw it terribly misused and trash everywhere so we decided to clean it up," said 21-year-old Daryl Smith, a USC student.
He and fellow student Stephen Scott say they never know what they will come across while they try to enjoy the Congaree River in West Columbia.
The pair say they were tired of coming across things like alcohol containeres, traffic cones and trash bags in and along the river.
So they decided to turn a class project into a effort for good, but first they wanted to see how the community felt.
"It's been pretty bad this past year. We actually surveyed some people, we came here a few weeks ago and a lot of the locals are upset," said Scott.
They called on Congaree Riverkeeper, Bill Stangler to help them organize an event to improve the area.
Stangler climbed around the rocks and waded into water to pick up trash and even found an old tire which he says is more common than people would think. He believes people forget to consider where their trash could end up when they pollute around local rivers.
"It comes from people's kinda disregard for the downstream communities. Rivers for a long time were just treated like trash dumps and open sewers and people would just throw things in them without thinking about where they ended up or the effect they had on the river's ecosystem," said Stangler.
The group trashed everything from cigarette butts to fast food wrappers. Stangler says it is good to see young people taking responsibility for the environment.
"I'm really happy that they did this. It's always great when people take initiative themselves to clean something that they see," said Stangler.
"It doesn't need an event you can just pick up whatever you see. I mean id you see a piece of trash, pick it up throw it in the trash can or the recycling bin, just whatever you see try and help out the community," said Smith.