The Power of One Champion – Jack Hawkins
For July we are celebrating the Power of One Champion. There are many donation champions throughout our community and we will be featuring the stories of a few over the coming weeks. Jack Hawkins is one example of a champion for donation.
Jack Hawkins took over the Yakima County Coroner’s office in May of 2009 when the previous long-time coroner retired. Jack, who had served for more than three years as deputy coroner, had always been a proponent of donation. Unfortunately, in that roll, he didn’t have the power to release for donation. He watched from the sidelines while Yakima became one of the counties with the highest coroner decline rate.
Upon his appointment as Yakima County Coroner, and subsequent election, he has worked very closely with the hospitals and families to ensure that donation is an option. Even more importantly, Jack has gone out of his way to teach the county’s prosecutors that a decline isn’t the only way to run a criminal case. The prosecution office now knows that they can work with LifeCenter Northwest throughout an investigation to safeguard evidence, and still allow donation in their community.
