MARYSVILLE — You gotta love this place.

If students don’t take care of their own high school campus, who will? asked M-P students who participated in the annual summer campus clean-up and leadership camp Aug. 27.

“I like my school and I want other people to like it too,” said junior Sarah Clark as she pulled up tape from the freshly painted steps of Quil Ceda Stadium. Clark competes on the swimming and track teams.

Students spent several hours in the morning in small groups, working on different projects. About 30 students and coaches tackled the stadium, putting fresh coats of red paint on all the railings and brightening the yellow stripes on each stair. Others raked and replanted the flower beds between classrooms and touched up the gray paint on the school’s concrete walls. After lunch, students broke into teams to work through leadership scenarios and try out their new skills.

Marysville athletic director Greg Erickson said that he sees the point of You Gotta Love This Place as an opportunity to give leaders among the student body “a sense of ownership” about their school.

“Every year we have a different theme,” Erickson said. “Last year was to have a gratitude attitude.”

Students were asked to write down things they were thankful for and Erickson later sent those lists to students to remind them of their advantages.

This year, the lesson was be the change you want to see.

Erickson said he hopes kids come away with the message that the staff “really care about what you think and that we see you as a resource. If you see something that needs to be done, be that change.”

A number of the students who elected to participate — a record 80 students RSVP’d for the event, versus the usual 60 or so, according to Erickson — brought that sense to the morning clean-up, before sitting down to absorb the leadership lesson.

“Everyone has a part on the team,” said senior Frankie Busichio, a basketball and baseball player, who added that he sees part of his responsibility “to do the little things, helping out.”