White Center Chamber honors Jeff Hancock, Vary Jackson, Selina Daniels as heroes during annual holiday luncheon
Though White Center has a new “storefront deputy” now, Deputy B.J. Myers‘ popular predecessor Deputy Jeff Hancock returned to a hero’s welcome today. Literally! The occasion: The White Center Chamber of Commerce‘s Heroes Luncheon.
Deputy Hancock was one of the three heroes celebrated. Turns out he is actually working again in White Center – responding to emergency calls. Presenting the award, Frank Cantwell of Holy Family School recalled a ridealong with Deputy Hancock, who he said is known and respected by everyone in WC, as well as teamwork when HF put on its first street fair.
Another former member of the King County Sheriff’s Office White Center Storefront staff also was honored, Community Service Officer Vary Jackson. Chamber president Mark Ufkes called her the closest thing White Center had to a mayor during her 16 years of working there. He recalled her “endless advocacy,” which resulted in additions such as storefront planters. She wasn’t at the luncheon, but we took this photo of her with the planters in May of last year:
The third award went to county corrections workers who supervise defendants doing community service rather than spending time behind bars.
As King County Councilmember Joe McDermott explained, these crews come to White Center frequently for cleanup work and are supervised by Selina Daniels, who McDermott said spends five days a week working with a different crew each day. (With Daniels, McDermott, and Ufkes in our photo are Nate Caldwell, her supervisor, and Nick Masla, also from Corrections.)
Also at the luncheon, WestSide Baby executive director Nancy Woodland spoke about community efforts to address the problem of homeless/chronic alcoholic people.
The group that’s been convening to take this on, she said, has moved from trying to figure out how to get them sent somewhere else, to instead, considering engaging them as part of the community. The group meets again Tuesday, and Ufkes says it will be working on specific ideas for what to do next.
More business-district activities were updated by Aileen Sison, including this Saturday’s White Center Christmas Tree Lighting (5 pm Sunday at 16th/Roxbury, same place as last year). In the wake of all the attention given to the recent “Center of Attention” and DEA medical-marijuana raids, Ufkes said, this event should bring positive attention to WC and bring families out to visit, maybe even stick around for dinner.
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