In the interest of giving as much information as possible, I am including the press release for the upcoming Salute to Women event in full. This press release includes information about the banquet as well as complete bios of all the honorees. If you have any questions, please use the contact information at the end of the article.
YWCA Announces 2011 Salute to Women Award Recipients
Seven Honorees to Receive Awards at March 1st Banquet in West Lafayette
LAFAYETTE, IN (January 31, 2011)—The YWCA Greater Lafayette will showcase the achievements and contributions of seven local women at the annual YWCA Salute to Women Banquet on Tuesday, March 1st at University Plaza Hotel, 3001 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette.
Sally Downham Miller will be the evening’s keynote speaker. She is the Director of Student Services for the West Lafayette Community School Corporation and previously was the principal at Happy Hollow Elementary School. She won a 2007 YWCA Salute to Women award and is the author of “Mourning and Dancing: A Memoir of Grief and Recovery.”
The banquet also will include a reception, cash bar, and dinner. Doors will open and the banquet reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m.
This year’s honorees are:
Woman of Innovation (woman under 40)
Maricela Alvarado
Women of Distinction
Jane Boswell
Sally Byrn
Lynn Layden
Sgt. Cindy Marion
Carolyn Pearson
Woman of Wisdom
Linda M. Sorensen
Award recipients were selected based on outstanding and inspirational achievement in volunteer and/or professional roles, community involvement, and leadership/role modeling qualities.
The 2011 YWCA Salute to Women Banquet is sponsored by: Purdue Federal Credit Union, Lafayette Savings Bank, State Farm, Westminster Village, the YWCA Foundation, St. Elizabeth Regional Health, Faith Hope & Love Cancer Center, Kirby Risk, Grayce Lechtenberg, Coldwell Banker-The Shook Agency, Cheryl Butcher, YWCA Executive Director Mary Ann Forbes, YWCA Board President Dr. Teena D. Flook, Meri Preuss, and Mr. & Mrs. John Willis. In-kind sponsors are Journal & Courier, Lafayette Life Insurance, Rubia Flower Market, and Stephanie Deckard of Velvet Lotus Photography.
About the Banquet
Tickets for the banquet are $50 each. Full tables of eight can be purchased at the special price of $375. The reservation deadline is February 22. Call 765-742-0075 or visit www.ywca.org/lafayette/salute for more information.
History of Salute to Women
The first Salute to Women awards dinner was held on March 15, 1974. During its first two and a half decades, the Salute to Women program was coordinated by several local women’s organizations – the Lafayette Women’s Political Caucus, the Purdue Women’s Caucus, the American Association of University Women, Lafayette Business and Professional Women, the Lafayette Altrusa Club, the Association for Women in Communications, the American Business Women’s Association, the Association of Women Business Owners, and the YWCA Greater Lafayette. The YWCA became the sole sponsoring organization in 2000.
After the 2011 awards are presented, 265 women will have received Salute to Women awards.
About the YWCA Greater Lafayette
The YWCA Greater Lafayette is a nonprofit social service agency and a United Way partner. The local YWCA serves six area counties with a domestic violence program and women’s shelter and serves 23 counties with a women’s cancer program that provides free mammograms, Pap tests, and treatment for uninsured and under-insured women. The YWCA also offers youth activities, including youth basketball and dance classes, and adult enrichment classes. Learn about the YWCA at www.ywca.org/lafayette.
About the Honorees
Since 2004 Maricela Alvarado has been the director of Purdue University’s Latino Cultural Center (LCC), which was established as a place to gather, learn, share, and support Latino cultures. As the center’s first director, she has turned her ideas into new programs that have impacted many lives. Embajadores, for example, are students who acquire leadership skills and volunteer as LCC ambassadors. They promote a sense of community among Latino students, enhance understanding of Latino culture and art, and educate others about Latino perspectives on social justice issues. She also instituted the Latino Leadership Retreat offered each semester. She was a key force behind the creation of Humanigration, a course that includes an immersion trip to the Mexican/U.S. border in order to provide a more basic human understanding of the immigrant experience and firsthand experiences on both sides of the border. Alvarado holds undergraduate degrees in Spanish and English and a master’s degree in education administration, and she is pursuing a doctorate. She volunteers for United Businesses Serving the Community, the Indiana Latino Higher Education Council (as a founding member and current vice president), the Lafayette Commission for Latino Affairs, the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, and the Latino Faculty and Staff Association.
Jane Boswell led efforts to revitalize the Historic Ninth Street Hill Neighborhood, where she lives. Starting in 1986 she mobilized residents to form a neighborhood association and preserve historical integrity. An area that once was plagued with litter and deteriorating properties became an award-winning neighborhood with annual events that are community traditions, from A Festooned Fourth to the Holiday Luminaria Display. The neighborhood is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated as Lafayette’s first residential local historic district. The American Planning Association included it on the 2010 list of 10 “Great Neighborhoods,” and it was cited in a Disney Family Fun magazine article on “Secrets of America’s Most Fun Neighborhoods,” which described the Children’s Box Parade. Boswell was a special education and arts teacher and continues to work with young people on the Mayor’s Youth Council on projects such as flag design, recycling, and fitness trail signage. She and her husband, Jeff, teach pottery at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette. She has served as president of the Art Education Association of Indiana and on the boards of Salvation Army, Tippecanoe County Historical Association and Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation. She is a past recipient of the Journal & Courier George Award and the Crystal Bison Award for Volunteerism.
Holding a nursing degree but unable to find a public health nursing job in Lafayette in 1972, Sally Byrn began working with Ida Casey of the Purdue School of Nursing to create the Health Referral Center. She also helped found what became the St. John’s/LUM Food Pantry and, with the American Lung Association, helped start the Family Asthma Program in Tippecanoe County. She and her husband raised eight children and in 1991 co-founded SSCI Inc., an award-winning research and information company serving the pharmaceutical industry. The company grew to 100 employees and was sold to Aptuit Inc. in 2006. Byrn continued to serve in a leadership role there until retiring in 2009. However, her retirement has involved an additional career since she was appointed chief executive officer of Family Services Inc. in 2010. She is also on the boards of Wabash Center, Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Greater Lafayette Commerce. She is chair of Lafayette Urban Ministry’s Campaign for the Future and serves on the Altar Guild, Vestry and Endowment committees at St. John’s Episcopal Church. She and her husband continue in parenting mode, as they are now raising two of their 13 grandchildren.
A master gardener, Lynn Layden was the leader in successfully preparing West Lafayette to participate in the America in Bloom competition in 2008. She stepped up to serve as chair of the West Lafayette Tree Fund after founder Helen Lillich passed away. She helped implement and expand the butterfly garden featuring native plants at the Lilly Nature Center in the Celery Bog Nature Area. She plans and leads work at the demonstration garden maintained by Master Gardeners at the Tippecanoe County Extension Office, and she delivers the garden’s harvest to Lafayette Urban Ministry for distribution to needy families. In 2010 she helped deliver 3,000 pounds of produce. She spends hundreds of hours educating the public by making presentations for Wednesdays in the Wild, Tippecanoe County Public Library forums, Purdue Elderhostel programs, Frankfort Public Library and the Wabash Area Lifetime Learning Association. For several years she volunteered to teach public workshops on using the internet for people who were new to using computers. She has been an attorney since 1967 and is a partner in the firm Layden & Layden. She graduated with honors from Carleton College and magna cum laude from Indiana University School of Law, where she was a member of Order of the Coif and Law Review.
Det. Sgt. Cindy Marion of the West Lafayette Police Department is respected for her skills in interrogating/interviewing to obtain confessions and gain valuable information, and she is known for her advocacy on behalf of women and children. She is second in command of the department’s criminal investigation division and is a hostage negotiator. The positive outcome of numerous situations has hinged on her involvement, from convincing a suicidal man not to jump off a parking garage, to arrests and incarceration of child molesters in the area. She makes presentations around the community regarding internet safety, identity theft and workplace violence. She is a R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) and R.A.D. Kids supervisor, thus far empowering 80 women and 70 children through completion of the program. She serves on the Greater Lafayette Sexual Assault Coalition, Heartford House Advisory Board, Tippecanoe County Domestic Violence Council, the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team and the Catholic Dioceses Review Committee that reviews complaints against priests for alleged inappropriate behavior. In addition to her career she has been the caregiver for her recently disabled husband as well as their two teenagers.
Carolyn Pearson is a role model as an elected official, a business woman, a volunteer, a caregiver and a teacher. She is president of the Delphi City Council and has served on the council for more than 20 years. She served on the Delphi Board of Works, the Delphi Community School Corporation board, and the board of the Carroll County Community Foundation. She has been praised as a consensus builder and a good listener. For 20 years she taught adult education and G.E.D. preparation classes at Delphi Community High School. She and her husband farmed for eight years before purchasing the John Deere dealership in Flora. Pearson owns an office building in Delphi, and she is hands-on with maintenance, including doing the cleaning and mowing herself. She volunteers for the Carroll County Historical Society and Wabash & Erie Canal Association and can be seen dressed in period costume teaching children how to make corn husk dolls at the Old Settlers Celebration. Through Psi Iota Xi she delivers meals to people who are homebound, and she has chaired local American Red Cross blood drives for many years. At home she is a caregiver for her husband since he suffered a stroke, and she helps her nearby mother with day-to-day tasks.
Many graduates of West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School remember Linda M. Sorensen as their guidance counselor and the advisor for the West Side Service Organization (WESSO). She is credited with taking the girls’ volunteer service organization to a whole new level, giving it a positive reputation as the “go to” group for filling volunteer needs. She retired as guidance director in 2003 and received a Crystal Apple Award from the Purdue University School of Education. Growing up in Gaston, Indiana, she participated in 4-H for 12 years and received a National 4-H Achievement Award. As an adult she judged at county and state 4-H fairs for 10 years. She serves on the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission, West Lafayette Strategic Planning Committee, and Diversity Roundtable. Her past service includes the Purdue University Education Advisory Committee, Barbara Cook Chapter of Mortar Board at Purdue, and YWCA Board of Directors. With the YWCA she has volunteered on numerous committees dealing with diversity and racial justice, Salute to Women, the Network Luncheon Series, Holiday Bingo and Silent Auction, and Pursuit of Possibilities. She served on the YWCA Foundation as a board member and president and received the Win Hentschel Distinguished Service Award in 2010. She co-chaired the community committee for the 2010 Lafayette census and was vice president of the Art League.
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YWCA Greater Lafayette
Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women
605 N. 6th Street
Lafayette IN 47901
765-742-0075
http://www.ywca.org/lafayette
A United Way Agency
“Eliminating Racism Empowering Women”. Any decent human being should be for those ideals. And I don’t think they “just” have a slogan, I think they seek to live out that slogan through offering programs and events geared toward accomplishing what their slogan says.
