MARION — After two years of planning and a summer of on-site work, the Town of Marion is set to re-dedicate DePina Landing and celebrate improvements made at the public park and kayak launch site during a revitalization project.

The re-dedication ceremony, which will be held on Thursday, Aug. 14 at 4 p.m. at the 29 River Road site is the culmination of planning by the Marion Historical Commission.

The plans to revitalize DePina Landing resulted from a series of public forums at the Marion Council on Aging, where members of the Cape Verdean community reminisced about their childhood memories of the park as the focal point of their summertime recreational activities.

“Before all of this, not many people knew that this park existed, except for some from the Cape Verdean community,” said Meg Steinberg, chairperson of the Marion Historical Commission. “They knew about it, but haven’t used it much lately.”

The Marion Historical Commissioner planned the re-dedication ceremony for the past two years, with the Department of Public Works working on the site to install three new benches, two picnic tables, signage and a memorial garden.

The riverfront property, owned by the town, was also cleaned out this summer and last year to prepare for the new installations.

The $5,000 project, which is being funded by the Friends of Marion Recreation, will also bring a dogwood tree and a historic plaque to DePina Landing to be placed on a large rock at the site as part of the new memorial garden. 

The plaque, which dates back to the 1950s, was previously located at the site of the Marion Harbormaster Building

The plaque and tree are both dedicated to Mary DePina and her husband John DePina, a Cape Verdean community leader and businessman from Marion who donated the riverfront property to the town in 1953.

“We’ve revitalized DePina Landing, bringing it back so everyone in the Town of Marion can enjoy this amazing community resource,” Steinberg said.