This year’s theme, “Cultivating Peace: Relationships, Resources, and Reciprocity,” calls us to consider the role each of us can play in building a safer and more peaceful community. We will gather as neighbors, people of faith and conscience, community leaders, and public servants to pause, remember, and renew our shared commitment to peace.

As part of the vigil, we will remember those whose lives have been lost or changed by gun violence, including those lost to firearm suicide; stand with families and communities who grieve; and recommit ourselves to preventing violence before it occurs. We will also reflect on how relationships, shared resources, and reciprocity can strengthen the networks of trust, support, advocacy, and mutual responsibility that make lasting peace possible.

We hope this vigil will provide an opportunity for people from across Centre County to come together across differences and affirm our shared responsibility for creating a community where every person can live in safety, dignity, and peace.