The 47th annual Jack London Foundation Birthday Banquet, by Rudy Ciuca

Alison Manchester and the Sonoma Valley High School “Wolf Club”

The 47^th annual Jack London Foundation Birthday Banquet was held on January 14, 2017 at Ramekins Inn in Sonoma, California. It was well attended by Foundation members and their quests. A buffet dinner was served before the program. Rudy Ciuca opened the program by introducing the people at the head table and the Board of Directors of the Foundation. He then gave an update on the Foundation. Jeanne Reesman provided the academic update. This year the “Person of the Year” was Lou Leal—writer, lecturer and long-time docent at Jack London State Park. It was a well-deserved award for all of Lou’s work in the Jack London arena. The first-place winning story of the Foundation High School Writing Contest was read by Zelda Bettman since the winner could not attend. Alison Manchester who sponsors the “Wolf Club” at Sonoma Valley High School had “Wolf Club” members participating in the Banquet activities. Each student received a tee-shirt from the Jack London Society Symposium and a copy of A Pictorial Life of Jack London. The Foundation was pleased to have Cecelia Tichi as the guest speaker.  The title of her talk was “Jack London—The Second Century.” She discussed The Iron Heel and compared it to our times. She encouraged everyone and their family and friends to read more of Jack London.