Salute to Women
Salute to Women is an annual event that celebrates and honors women making significant contributions in our community. It recognizes leaders who demonstrate outstanding service, advocacy, and dedication in various fields, showcasing their impact on improving and inspiring the lives of others. This event highlights their achievements and fosters a spirit of empowerment and recognition within the community.
-
-
The first Salute to Women awards dinner was held on March 15, 1974, nearly a year after the Tippecanoe County Task Force on the Status of Women submitted its final report to local governmental bodies.
As part of this final report, presented to city and county officials in April 1973, task force members revealed their findings of disparities in education, employment, laws and other areas in the community. Because of these findings, they requested that a permanent, funded Commission on the Status of Women be created to hear and rule on cases of sex discrimination. However, the city councils and county commissioners ultimately tabled the ordinance that proposed the creation of the Commission on the Status of Women.
Realizing that the local community lacked an environment of support for women and that many women were not being recognized for their achievements, the Lafayette Women’s Political Caucus conceived the idea of a Salute to Women awards dinner. The Purdue Women’s Caucus joined in as a sponsor.
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.
Although members of the original groups remain involved with Salute to Women, the YWCA became the sole sponsoring organization in 2000. The YWCA had many resources to offer the program, including the physical facility to house the program’s records and publicly display the names of award recipients. The YWCA added to the slate of awards the Mary Keller Ade Woman of Wisdom Award and, in 2008, the Woman of Innovation Award to honor a woman under 40. For the 50th anniversary in 2024, Rising Star Award was added to highlight contributions of individual under 18 years old.
2026 Photos
A big thank you to Jasmine Norris Photography for capturing the incredible moments from our Salute to Women 2026 celebration. We are grateful for Jasmine’s work documenting this special evening and the inspiring women in our community.
The full event gallery is now available for viewing and download: View & Download Photos
How to download photos:
Click on any photo in the gallery.
Select the download button to save that image.
If you'd like the entire gallery, use the download button at the top of the page to download all photos at once.
The gallery will remain available for one year, so we encourage you to download and save any photos you would like to keep for future use.
The images are provided without watermarks, but we kindly ask that you include a photo credit when sharing. Please credit JasmineNorris.com, tag @jasmine.norris on Instagram, or @JasmineNorrisPhotography on Facebook.
If you share photos on social media, please also tag @ywca_lafayette on Instagram, or @/ywcalafayette on Facebook. Please also use the hashtags #YWCA, #OnAMission, and #SalutetoWomen2026 on your post as well so we can celebrate and reshare with our community!