KINGFIELD – Twenty years ago, a group of civic-minded people from across Western Maine gathered to seek a plan for an area struggling with the loss of manufacturing jobs.

The diverse group of business and community leaders was brought together by King Cummings to talk about economic and community development. From that meeting, the Western Mountains Alliance was founded.

The organization will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a dinner from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, at Webster Hall. A harvest dinner featuring foods from area farms, a musical group, guest speaker and silent auction highlight the evening. The event is open to the public and registration is limited. Phone 778-3885 before Oct. 25. The cost is $35 or $45 for the meal.

The alliance supports communities within Franklin, Piscataquis, Somerset, Oxford and northern Androscoggin counties, Tanya Swain, the alliance’s executive director, said Monday.

“Our core value, mostly, is to try to create a place for diverse voices and perspectives to get together,” Swain said. “We try to make connections between people or organizations who are working on things or who have new ideas and new opportunities.”

The organization’s goal is to promote balanced growth while preserving natural resources and the rural character of communities, as stated on its Web site.

Within the past few years, the alliance has developed the Lead Western Maine Program that is geared toward building leadership capacity. The group has also worked to support local agriculture and to develop renewable energy. Lately, it has been working on ways to increase access to high speed Internet, a key element for the area’s success as voiced by economic developers, Swain said.

After dinner, Joel Haskard from a Minnesota program similar to the alliance will speak on the power of community networks and how they can impact Maine’s renewable energy.

Haskard is from the Clean Energy Resource Teams project in Minnesota and also works to connect people with ideas and programs, she said.

That project brings together residents and the technical resources they need to create communitywide energy efficiency and renewable energy such as solar, wind or water projects. The project, as a model for change, will be discussed along with a vision for Minnesota’s energy future through conservation and production from clean new technologies, according to a statement.

The alliance will also name a local organization and a youth-led group that have made contributions to Western Maine’s future as winners of the King Cummings Leadership Award and the Jane deFrees Rural Youth Leaders Award.

Cummings and deFrees were founding members of the alliance.

A silent auction of Maine artwork celebrating the Eat Smart Eat Local vision will also be held.

Starting at 4:30 p.m., an eight-piece family bluegrass band, Zevulon, of Dexter will perform. The group started in the New England music scene in 2005 and most of the musicians in the family band are in their teens.