South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) might be one of the few schools in the country that can toast its own successes and milestones with its own wine. SSCC’s award-winning Northwest Wine Academy was the setting for Thursday afternoon’s “Salute to South” community reception, looking ahead to the start of the new school year on Monday. As usual, president Gary Oertli was there to oversee the party, at right in our photo below with professor Mike Hickey:

Oertli spoke about the renovation of the building that’s now home to the wine academy:

He mentioned many school and community leaders in attendance; among those we saw was Southwest Seattle Historical Society executive director Clay Eals, at center below:

He was there circulating news of the “Words, Wine, and West Seattle” author-readings series that will bring local writers to SSCC every month for the year ahead, 4-6 pm on first Fridays, starting with Stephanie Guerra on October 4th – you guessed it, at the Wine Academy HQ on the north side of campus.