In 2017, our President, Megan Dudley, took an idea to the City of Ridgefield for an annual festival that would celebrate culture. City leadership, especially Lee Knottnerus and Jessica Kipp, embraced the idea and nurtured it, and the annual Ridgefield Multicultural Festival was born in 2018. It was important to Dr. Dudley to do this work as her own family's culture had been suppressed during World War II, and in the years following. She wanted to have a space where everyone could celebrate their culture without fear of retaliation or ostracization