The 10th anniversary of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center will be celebrated tonight with a benefit dinner and a performance of “The Yellow Rose of Suffrage.”

This event concludes two months of celebration for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, which was established in September of 1992, said Dianne Bystrom, director of the center.

The festivities will include a benefit dinner and final bidding on a silent auction, which includes nearly 45 packages of items from various political figures, many of them women like Gloria Steinem. Bystrom said the silent auction is an opportunity to “shop for the holidays for political buffs.”

A one-hour cut of “The Yellow Rose of Suffrage,” a one-woman play written and performed by Jane Cox, is the final event scheduled for the evening.

The play focuses on Carrie Chapman Catt and other figures in the women’s political movement.

“Some of [the play] has to do with Carrie Chapman Catt, who was very important for the women’s suffrage campaign,” said Cox, associate professor of music.

The play shows Catt’s early life and marriage, as well as how she became a vital part of the women’s suffrage movement, she said.

“I’m pleased to be able to do this for the community and the Carrie Chapman Catt Center. The Catt Center has done very important work,” Cox said.

“The Yellow Rose of Suffrage” has been performed in 22 states, including in the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, Cox said.

Cox will perform the play in the Scheman Building for the first time in about five years, Bystrom said.

Tonight’s events will celebrate the center’s long-standing dedication to Iowa State, she said.

“It is an internationally known center,” Bystrom said. “Our accomplishments are long for our short history.”

The Catt Center educates about 50 students a year, Bystrom said.

Pat Miller, director of the Lectures Program, said she has worked with the Catt Center to bring many important women to campus, including Elizabeth Dole and Anita Hill.

“It is an asset to have the Carrie Chapman Catt Center on campus. They are an attraction to major speakers,” she said.

Bystrom said a recent donation by Joni and John Axel will allow the Catt Center to put a continued emphasis on student leadership development in the future.

Bystrom said the center’s programs are open to men as well.