John Avlon, long-time CNN Anchor and Senior Political Analyst, will join News 12 Westchester Anchor/ Reporter Tara Rosenblum in a special interview presentation at the 2024 Gala Dinner of the Lincoln Society in Peekskill on Saturday, April 6th. The event will focus attention on Mr. Avlon’s recent book entitled Lincoln and the Fight for Peace. Ken Burns (“Mr. American History”), who directed the award-winning PBS series on The Civil War, praised Avlon’s book as “a stunning accomplishment”. The event will take place at Cortlandt Colonial Manor, located on Old Albany Post Road in Cortlandt Manor, NY.
The dinner gala will mark the 121st anniversary of the founding of the Lincoln Society in Peekskill in 1903. It is the only Lincoln group in Westchester County and one of the oldest Lincoln societies in the United States. It was organized to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s only speaking stop in Westchester County during his lifetime before a crowd of 1,500 people at the old Peekskill railroad depot in February 1861 during the train journey to his Inauguration in Washington, DC. The aging site was later rescued, renovated and opened to the public in 2014 as the “Lincoln Depot Museum”. It is the only Lincoln-related museum in the State of New York.
Everyone is welcome to attend the Lincoln Society dinner gala and tickets for the evening (cocktail attire) event on April 6th can be purchased on their website, which includes a credit card and PayPal link: www.lincolnsocietyinpeekskill.org
The $100. ticket price includes an open bar (all evening), cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres, dinner and dancing, with dessert and coffee. Live music will be provided by Vinyl Siding. The event also features a book signing station and a silent auction area. The deadline to purchase tickets is March 25th.
The Westchester County Historical Society will be honored at the dinner celebration. It is the 2024 recipient of the Lincoln Society’s “Champion Of History Award” for its outstanding leadership and scholarship within the history community. This year marks the 150th anniversary of its founding during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant in 1874.
The 2024 dinner gala will be hosted by Lincoln Society president Emily Lapisardi, who serves as the musical director of the Catholic Chapel at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. She edited Rose Greenhow’s: My Imprisonment about a prominent female Civil War spy.
The Lincoln Society in Peekskill is a non-partisan and not-for-profit historical society that is dedicated to promoting a greater awareness of the life and legacy of America’s 16th President.
