In January, Ohio State Marion helped kick off the City of Marion’s America 250 celebrations at the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting. The city will be celebrating America 250 throughout the year, with monthly themes and programs designed to highlight and recognize Marion’s story, and a countywide immersive scavenger-hunt-style app designed to connect residents and visitors with Marion’s history.
"America 250 invites Ohio State Marion not just to celebrate Marion, but to listen to it—to learn from and to celebrate the people, memories, and experiences that shape the city that this campus calls home,” said Jennifer Schlueter, dean and director of Ohio State Marion.
The Marion America 250 initiative will culminate in Echoes of Marion: A Living History Project, an event hosted by Ohio State Marion at the Marion Palace Theater. The production will feature community members, artists and Ohio State faculty and students to celebrate the story of Marion’s past and its future.
“Echoes of Marion will bring those voices to the stage, weaving community stories—ordinary, inherited, and complex—to help us collectively understand who Marion has been and who we are now," Schlueter said.
Ohio State Marion will be amplifying the America 250 stories that are set in motion from the America 250 communications/marketing committee for the Marion community. The Larry R. Yoder Prairie Learning Laboratory at Ohio State Marion has been chosen by the America 250 Marion committee as one of 10 trail stops during the month of June 2026. The theme that month is Marion Outdoors.