The WNY Peace Center’s Annual Dinner is both a community celebration as well as a fundraiser, and has sustained our grassroots organization for nearly six decades! Our 59th Annual Dinner took place on Saturday, October 3, 2026.
This year’s theme was “Coming Together for Civil Resistance”, and we were honored to welcome peace author and activist Frida Berrigan as our keynote speaker!
Frida Berrigan lives in New London, CT with her husband and three kids. She is an urban farmer and community activist, organizing around affordable home ownership with the Southeastern Connecticut Community Land Trust, and against the ever stretching shadow of militarism with the Connecticut Committee on Nuclear Prohibition. She serves on the board of Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in PA and organizes locally with the People’s Budget Coalition. She writes periodically for WagingNonviolence, TomDispatch.Com and In These Times, and is the author of the 2015 book “It Runs In The Family: On Being Raised By Radicals And Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood” (OR Books).
We were also thrilled to honor this year’s award winners: Carol Speser, Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Investigative Post, Stellar Media Award.