A tribute to a local Sadsbury boy and his love for tractors is cultivating joy for an entire community with a brand new playground at Bert Reel Park called Eric’s Place.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday at 10:40 a.m. during the Community Day festival will dedicate Eric’s Place, which features an ADA-compliant, tractor-shaped climbing wall and double slide, along with swings, a ball maze, bongos, tic tac toe and spring rockers.

“When Eric passed away, we really tried to figure out what we could do as a tribute to his spirit,” father Chuck DiLabbio said in a Daily Local News report by Lucas Rodgers. “Everything about the playground here is positive, so it’s not ‘in memory of,’ it’s not ‘dedicated to;’ it’s a tribute to the spirit of Eric DiLabbio.”

Eric’s Place is the culmination of a $60,000 fundraising and construction effort led by the DiLabbios, a Sadsbury couple who both work at nearby Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. It comes seven years after 3-year-old Eric drowned in the family’s swimming pool.

“Thousands of kids over the next couple of decades will know Eric through this, through what he helped us put together for Sadsbury,” Chuck DiLabbio added.

Read more about the story behind Eric’s Place in the Daily Local News here.