9 PM: In the kitchen before tonight’s “Gifts from the Earth” gala at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor), that’s SSCC alum Bruce Cougan from Harry’s Chicken Joint (also a WSB sponsor) at right, with cook Joe. (They were, of course, frying chicken.) Bruce is one of six SSCC alums on the roster of 15 chefs cooking for the fundraising celebration of SSCC’s award-winning culinary, wine, and hospitality programs.

Once again this year, tickets for “Gifts from the Earth” were sold out well in advance of the event. In addition to the food and wine, and a silent auction, a live auction was planned, including a new “Fund a Dream” feature during which guests were scheduled to hear from student Candis Outson, second from right in our next photo:

She was planning to explain how her scholarship at SSCC helped put her on the path to make dreams come true – as encouragement to guests to pledge to the fund that will help make more scholarships available. She also is one of the SSCC students on the cooking team tonight, and is shown in our photo with Brandon LaVielle (left) and Evan Garrard (right) from Emerald Cove Catering, and Shannon Higgins (second from left). The gala is still under way as we publish this; we’ll update later when we hear how much was raised.

10:32 PM UPDATE: SSCC has just announced that Gifts from the Earth raised a record $210,000. More than a quarter of that, $58,000, came from the “Fund a Dream” pledges, the school says.