Nearly 30 years after being built, residents and community members met at the Leonard C. Lopes Playground in Onset on Saturday to make sure it lasts for at least another 30.

A cleanup of the playground was co-coordinated by a group of residents and Selectmen to try and restore the playground to its former glory.

"More people came than I suspected," said Roger Long, who along with his wife Pat were part of the driving force to put this cleanup together.

He said he and Pat would take their grandchildren to the playground, but that it had become a mess with debris and weeds everywhere.

"I don't mind picking stuff up, but I thought everybody should pitch in," Long said.

On Saturday, residents came with tools and power equipment and cleared the brush, weeds and debris on the playground and basketball courts. They also repaired and sanded many of the broken parts of the playground, and Home Depot even donated two new wooden picnic tables.

Long said the effort was really spearheaded by Selectman Judith Whiteside, who was also instrumental in getting the park built decades ago.

"A lot of people here today...their parents or grandparents helped build this park," Whiteside said, adding that two of the men who brought in the heavy equipment to erect the playground in the 1980s had driven by the park on Saturday by happenstance and "wanted to see who was playing on their park."

Members of the Onset Cape Verdean Festival Association and family members of Leonard C. Lopes and Robert Thornton were on hand to display a new sign they'd donated to the park to rededicate the Lopes playground and Thornton Memorial Basketball Courts.

OCVFA President Deneen Rose and Vendor Coordinator Michael Rogers thanked all those who came out on Saturday.

"He would be so proud. Bobby loved the kids and always wanted to keep them off the streets," said Thornton's widow, Linda Thornton.  Bobby Thornton died on Jan. 11, 2002. "We need more Bobby Thorntons to come out."