Centre County United Nations Association Commemorates U.N.’s 80th Anniversary

The United Nations Association of Central Pennsylvania will join similar organizations around the world in celebrating the U.N.’s 80th anniversary this weekend.

In recognition of U.N. Day, held annually on Oct. 24, the local organization is hosting a sold-out dinner on Sunday, Oct. 26, in State College to celebrate and support the U.N.’s mission to promote peace, human rights and sustainable global development.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, where the commissioners proclaimed United Nations Day in Centre County, UNA of Central Pennsylvania board member said that though the U.N. was founded in 1945 after the end of World War II in the hopes of preventing future global conflicts, its mission has gone further.

“It goes beyond the peacekeeping efforts,” Lumley-Sapanski said. “They provide shelter, medical help, education and vaccinate nearly 45% of the world’s children either through UNICEF… and Shot at Life, another organization of the U.N.”

The U.N., he said, “obviously has come under some criticism of late,” but that “constructive criticism is always good.”

Applauding the U.S. government for its recent peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East, and particularly Gaza, Lumley-Sapanski said the U.N. “has been lined up waiting to get relief trucks in there as soon as a ceasefire was signed.”

“Already they’ve been in, removed over 100 million tons of rubble,” he said. “Nearly 70% of all the buildings in Gaza have been either totally destroyed or totally unsafe. So the UN’s already removing that, trying to create a safe environment for the people left behind. Of course, bringing in food to the world … and shelter, medical relief. These kids have not had any education for two years now, so trying to get school started again.”

He added that the U.N. is also providing relief in other nations such as Ukraine, Syria, the Dominican Republic, the Congo, Sudan and others.

“it’s when we work together and keep in mind the importance of the UN and going into the places that are most difficult and often the most treacherous that UN personnel are going into places that are really, you know, the most dangerous places on the world and places afflicted by, you know, conflict and natural disasters. And that, you know, it’s, there’s not a lot of other, you know, other than the Red Cross, there’s not a lot of other organizations that are able sometimes to get access to those places.

The UNA was started at the same time as the U.N. by Eleanor Roosevelt, creating chapters to build understanding of and support for the ideals and work of the U.N. through educational and humanitarian campaigns.

“It’s when we work together and keep in mind the importance of the U.N. and going into the places that are most difficult and often the most treacherous that UN personnel are going into places that are really the most dangerous places on the world and places afflicted by conflict and natural disasters,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said. “And… other than the Red Cross, there’s not a lot of other organizations that are able sometimes to get access to those places.

The UNA of Central Pa. was founded in 1994 at Foxdale Village in State College by residents Don and Peg Sherman to involve the community in educational and advocacy initiatives.

It has supported high school Model United Nations teams, as well as the State College-based Ghana Medical Relief.

“It’s a number of medical people, doctors, nurses, PAs from Centre County, as well as construction people, farmers, loggers who’ve gone over to Ghana to start these medical relief programs,” Lumley-Sapanski said. “Again vaccinations, but people have never, seen a dentist in their lives, and also setting up pharmacies. So just a number of citizens from Centre County have joined up and gone over a few times, and we’ve been supportive of them.”

Sunday’s UN Day celebration will be the local organizations largest to date and will have global migration as its theme. A panel discussion, “The Hard Way Home: A Conversation about Global Migration,” with will include Storai Jalali, editorial assistant at the Penn Stater magazine and a women’s rights activist from Kabul, Afghanistan; Samuel Kolawole, assistant professor of English and African Studies at Penn State and author of “The Road to the Salt Sea”, which won the 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction; and urban historian Andrew Sandoval-Strausz, director of Latina/o Studies at Penn State and author of “Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City.”

“Every year, we focus our efforts on a theme that aligns with one or more of the U.N.’s sustainable development goals,” Eva Letwin, UNA of Central Pa. board president, said in a statement. “Migration relates directly to issues like poverty reduction, labor rights and health and education—issues that are key to the U.N.’s sustainable development goals.”

The most recent estimates indicate there were 281 million international migrants as of 2020 — 3.6% of the global population. The U.N.’s International Office of Migration says that global migration has risen significantly in the past five years and predicts that it will continue to rise in the coming years, according to a UNA of Central Pa. release.

“There are any number of reasons that make people leave their home countries—but whether migration is forced or voluntary, the journeys refugees and migrants undertake are long, arduous, and perilous,” Savita Iyer Ahrestani, vice president of the board, said in a statement. “Migration is also a very controversial subject, and sadly, political rhetoric today is resorting to simplistic and biased narratives to characterize migration with a view to swaying public opinion.”