(UPDATED MONDAY with fundraising total)

(Photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)

History isn’t just about the past. That was highlighted during today’s Champagne Gala Brunch raising money for the Southwest Seattle Historical Society at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor). We stopped by in the early going for some photos; the highlight notes were contributed tonight by SWSHS executive director Jeff McCord:

Special guests Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard were a delight as they were being interviewed by Connie Thompson from KOMO4. Longtime Seattle Times columnist Dorpat — famous for his wit and improvisational style — further entertained the crowd by interrupting his own interview (that Connie was conducting) and creating an impromptu “auction” of his Gala program that’d he’d gotten everyone at his VIP table to sign the cover of, plus his receipt from Trader Joe’s.

(Jean Sherrard and Paul Dorpat, photographed by Gail Ann Photography)

Hilarity ensued when he started the “auction” at 10¢, and then Connie encouraged Paul to throw in the nice chocolate bar he’d bought at Trader Joe’s (which he ‘reluctantly’ acquiesced to). Once the auction grew to ‘tens’ of dollars, Connie herself took over the auction.

(Connie Thompson, a longtime West Seattleite)

Then, seeing the action and seizing the moment official auctioneer Ron Hippe, took it over and took the previously unplanned auction to over $50, at which point we whispered to Ron that we were throwing in a donated, signed copy of Paul & Jean’s new book, “Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred,” and the “auction” went skyward to over $200.

Earlier during the live auction segment, 4th great-grandson of Chief Seattle, Ken Workman, had donated a beautiful grouping of cedar jigsaw artwork depicting Chief Seattle that his brother Kurt Workman had handcrafted, and he talked about the connection of his own ancestors’ DNA that was captured in the very wood of trees around us in our area, since they’d traditionally been buried among the trees.

(Ken Workman)

Every springtime the rains wash down and the groundwater is drawn up into the trees, meaning that his own relatives continue to live all around us, and in the ancient beams of many of the buildings built here in West Seattle.

(Husky Deli proprietor Jack Miller and Easy Street Records proprietor Matt Vaughan)

In another instance during the auction, when Husky Deli owner Jack Miller realized that his popular “Create your own Husky Deli ice cream flavor” auction-item had nearly sold in a deadlock between two close bidders, he ended up “doubling” the auction offering on the spot, meaning that both the first bidder and runner-up bidder Adah Cruzen — another honored guest—won the opportunity to create a flavor with Jack that *might* even find its way onto the permanent menu sometime in 2019 in Husky Deli finds it to be popular. The auction package(s) include a launch party for the flavor for up to 25 guests… Yeah, Adah (and other guest)!!

(Jeff McCord and Adah Cruzen)

In addition to these sweet moments, guests reported that they enjoyed this year’s Gala a lot, saying it was fun, low key and relaxed, and being excited about the great auction items and the flow of the event.

(Auction item: Michael Birawer print provided by Diane Venti)

There were lots of smiles & laughter, nice conversations, and thankfulness for the generosity of the donors who came forth to support the Southwest Seattle Historical Society.

More photos!

(Laura Vanderpool with Paul Dorpat)

(SWSHS board president Karen Sisson)

(Jeff McCord with John Bennett, longtime SWSHS supporter whose Luna Park Café was the brunch’s presenting sponsor)

We’re expecting an update from SWSHS on Sunday with the brunch’s fundraising totals and we’ll add it here.

MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Here’s that info from SWSHS’s Jeff McCord:

We are happy to report that we were able to raise over $72,000 in revenue for this year’s 2018 Champagne Gala Brunch, aptly themed, “History is Happening Now!” There was an additional $4,000 in in-kind contributions to add to that, plus so much more … We are thankful for all of the generous donors, attendees, auction-item donors, corporate sponsors, challenge-funders, and volunteers who came together in a monumental effort to make this year’s Gala a success!

The Southwest Seattle Historical Society is devoted to continue bringing great programming, community events, activities, museum exhibits, and educational opportunities to the community we all love so much.