International Day of Peace a celebration of accomplishments, local activists
Want to learn more about changemakers in the local community and how you can help make a difference? Look no further than the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center’s International Day of Peace Celebration on Sunday.
The Whatcom Peace and Justice Center (WPJC) has been marking this occasion since 2003 with community-wide events aimed at uplifting local organizers and fundraising for the nonprofit. This year’s event will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. at Structures Brewing, 601 W Holly St. in Bellingham.
The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations in 1981 and was designated by the U.N. General Assembly as a period of non-violence and ceasefire in 2001. The day has been recognized by the city of Bellingham and Whatcom County since 2017.
WPJC Board Member Josh Cerretti said the event has evolved over the years into the celebration that it is now. He emphasized that it’s casual and fun, with a variety of music, food and activities.
“We work on some really serious stuff all year round,” Cerretti said. “And there are definitely some serious and poignant moments in the event, but overall, we’ve really tried to move it to a place where … we’re celebrating all that our peace and justice community has accomplished in the past year.”
The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace Celebration is “We Keep Us Safe: Fostering a Culture of Care.” Cerretti said keeping one another safe is part of the broader philosophy of mutual aid — the collaborative exchange of resources for the common benefit of the community.
“For this day, we want to focus on the good things our community is doing for each other,” Cerretti said.
The first hour of Sunday’s event will be dedicated to an information fair featuring 16 local organizations, Cerretti said. Attendees can also participate in a silent auction, get food and mingle. Then, at 4 p.m., WPJC will start its official program: the Peacemaker Awards.
The Lifetime Peacemaker Award and Youth Peacemaker Award recognize changemakers in the community, Cerretti said. Candidates are nominated by others, and nominees remain on a list for future consideration even if they don’t win that year.
Last year’s awards went to Native activists Michelle and Michael Vendiola, who founded of the Bellingham No DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) Coalition and Red Line Salish Sea, and Raven Ott, an advocate for young people facing homelessness in Bellingham.
Cerretti said the process of choosing a winner is both about honoring important work and “thinking about what feels most relevant to our communities right now.” This year, Cerretti said anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy have been on the forefront of many peoples’ minds — making it a “really good time” to uplift local immigrant rights activist Maru Mora-Villalpando with the Lifetime Peacemaker Award.
Mora-Villalpando founded La Resistencia, a grassroots organization focused on advocating for the rights of immigrants detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, in 2014. Originally from Mexico, Mora-Villalpando herself was put in deportation proceedings by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2018 in what many saw as retaliation for her activism.
Mora-Villalpando, who has also partnered with Community to Community Development (C2C) and Latino Advocacy, said she was surprised and humbled when she learned she’d been chosen for the Lifetime Peacemaker Award.
She said her advocacy has always been about more than herself. Even though she now has legal status in the U.S., Mora-Villalpando said “the fight is still very much alive.”
“All families should be able to feel safe and everybody should have a life of equality,” Mora-Villalpando said.
Mora-Villalpando encourages young people to get involved in advocacy. She said seeing what local volunteer groups are already doing is a good place to start; and once one has an idea of what is being done, they can start to look for gaps to fill in.
“It’s important to pass on the baton,” Mora-Villalpando said. “We should always be constructing spaces for others to come in and lead, because we’re not going to be here forever. If we don’t do it, then our movements get hurt.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 11:04 AM.