State organ donor group honors Jenkins
Donate Life Florida has awarded Gulf County Tax Collector Shirley Jenkins the 2024 DLF Lifesaver Award.
The award recognizes a tax collector or tax collector employee who demonstrates strong support of the Donate Life mission, commitment to collaboration, and dedication to increasing the number of registered organ, eye and tissue donors in their community.
The award, given annually at the fall tax collector conference, was presented at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando on August 25-29.
Under Jenkin’s leadership, a small team of 10 employees has repeatedly outpaced tax collectors in 33 counties. With an organ donor sign-up rate averaging 67 percent, they achieved the highest donor designation rate in northern Florida during April’s National Donate Life Month, and they have finished in the top three offices in the Florida Panhandle for nearly a decade – an outcome usually attained by larger, more urban areas. The average donor designation rate among Florida tax collector offices is about 52 percent.
Gulf County’s triumph is particularly impressive given the size and scope of the competition. Percentage-wise, they finished neck and neck behind behemoths like Walton County, population 36,500, and St. Johns County, population 227,000 respectively. Gulf County has approximately 15,800 full-time residents.
Florida’s donor registry is the third largest in the nation due in large part to the generous work tax collector employees do behind the scenes every day. Ninety-five percent of Florida’s donors register through the tax collector offices and Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles when completing driver license applications.
The work the tax collectors do has a profound impact on others throughout Florida and across the nation. More than 100,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list, of which 5,000 are listed at transplant centers in Florida. One donor can potentially save up to eight lives.
Donate Life Florida is honored to collaborate with Jenkins, as she champions the importance of organ, eye, and tissue donation. Jenkins, who was elected in 2001, announced she will retire at the end of her current term.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.