MARYSVILLE – Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

Many people may have a hard time answering that question. But not the dozens of Marysville School District students who volunteered to help others on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Most of the local volunteers were at Jennings Memorial Park. Christmas trees collected by Boy Scouts were chopped into mulch, which the volunteers spread over trails so weeds wouldn’t grow in the paths.

Dania Vasquez, a junior at Marysville Getchell High School, has been volunteering on MLK Day for three years. She enjoys volunteering anyway, such as at her church and the YMCA, but MLK Day isn’t just a day off from school for her.

“He taught equality and to give back,” she said. “Instead of staying at home we should help those in need, especially on this day.”

About 250 students countywide were expected to participate. Projects included cleaning and organizing at Quilceda Community Services; park restoration with Marysville Parks and Recreation; various projects at All Breed Equine Rez-Q; and the Marysville Food Bank. Marking its seventh year in Snohomish County, the MLK Day of Service brings high school students and community volunteers together to serve the most vulnerable.Arthur Dicienko, an eighth-grader and Cedarcrest Middle School, said he simply wanted to make sure he got out of bed so he could be with his school and YMCA friends.

Oscar Bello, a ninth-grader, was building up a sweat on a cool day actually running with a wheelbarrow full of mulch from one end of a field and emptying it at another.

He works for his uncle sometimes doing landscaping.

“If you don’t like this kind of work you better to good in school,” Oscar quoted his uncle as saying.

Oscar also said he was taught to be thankful for having work to do and to be thankful for those you work with.

Oscar said volunteering was much better than staying home playing games.

“That doesn’t give you stuff to learn about life,” he said.