'I heart Marysville' campaign: 'It's all for the greater good'

'I heart Marysville' campaign: 'It's all for the greater good' »Play Video
MARYSVILLE, Wash. -- There's a major mission moving mountains in Marysville this week. It's one idea from one church that's now fanned out across the city with more than 100 people getting involved.

Driving around their town, members with Marysville First Assembly Church noticed the middle school and Little League fields are totally overgrown, the dugout roofs are dry-rotted, and the scoreboard's covered in graffiti.

It's the sad state of affairs at several Marysville schools. But instead of staring at it, or complaining about it, the church is doing something about it.

Digging deep into a raised bed full of sticker bushes, Kim Johnson says, "This is an absolute mess. This is dead and dried up."

Church leaders and volunteers call their campaign "I heart Marysville."

"I mean, it's too bad the schools, they don't get hired work to do this sort of stuff, so it's real rewarding to be able to volunteer some time," said volunteer Christy Bruley.

Bruley and her husband regularly get involved in mission trips through church, but those always take them outside the country. This time, they get to make different where they live.

About 100 volunteers will fan out across the city every day this week.

"It's all for the greater good," Johnson said. "You know someone has to help somewhere, sometime."

They're cleaning and sprucing up playgrounds and fields, and even painting Marysville Pilchuck High School.

"We love Marysville," said Pastor Andrew Munoz. "This is our home and we want to show people that the church cares about other places other than the four walls of the building. We care about the places that we live and of course the people that live there."

On day one at the high school, the crew cleaned out a courtyard garden where plants all ran together. Munoz said the newly-groomed area brought one teacher to tears.

She explained it was a dedication garden, where people had planted things over the years to memorialize and remember past staff members and students. The First Assembly crew had restored it to its original purpose.

"I Heart Marysville" is proving so successful that these hard workers want it to expand.

"I can see that maybe hundreds sometimes would be able to do this," Bruley said.

The entire project started with the church just calling the school district and city parks department to see what they could do. They got a list of needs and are tackling them one by one.

Marysville First Assembly says they hope others launch "I heart" campaigns in their own cities and communities.