Mark Hankinson is a well-known character in West Seattle, where he’s sold Real Change for roughly six years. He shows up outside the Starbucks at California and Fauntleroy as early as 5 a.m. to catch the first customers of the day.
When things are slow, he spends his time picking up trash around his sales spot. Giving back, whether it’s beautifying his location or giving spare cash to other people who are down on their luck, is just part of who Hankinson is.
“If you’re good to people, it comes around, three times forward,” Hankinson said.
Life hasn’t always been good to him, however.
Hankinson grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, until his mother died in an accident. He and his little brother, Kevin, were removed by a social services agency and put into the foster system, where Hankinson stayed until he was adopted at age 11 by a Mormon family in Utah. It was a far cry from his Irish Catholic upbringing. He was eventually baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make his adoptive parents happy, he explained.
But the system had left its toll on Hankinson. He shuffled from foster setting to foster setting, he ended up in special education classes and ultimately left the public school system with a third grade education. That made the traditional two-year mission trip challenging. He had a hard time reading the Book of Mormon, which was instrumental to his work.
He ultimately helped convert several people to Mormonism. Hankinson believes in God deeply, and said that his work meant that when he died, he will have done something good in life.
“Many times I wanted to quit on my mission. Many times I wanted to quit,” Hankinson said. “Same thing with Real Change — I wanted to quit, because it is hard. But I never did. I never gave up.”
Hankinson also spent 15 years as a deep-sea fisherman, dangerous work that kept him out on the water for four-month stretches. He would take his earnings and travel the world, going to Ireland and Sweden. In 1999, he saved up $6,000 and traveled to Nepal to hike Mount Everest.
He only made it to the first base camp before turning around and slogging back down the side of the mountain on knees swollen from the miles of switchbacks. Still, the experience — particularly that of meeting the Nepali people — changed the way he viewed the world and his place in it.
“Before then, I didn’t give a shit. I was selfish, and I didn’t care about people at all,” Hankinson said. Now, he wanted to give back.
Eventually, Hankinson had to get out of the fishing game. The work was too hard on his body. He became involved with Real Change after moving to Seattle. Employment was hard to come by, as many of the jobs he looked at required more than his limited ability to read and write. Selling the paper, though, was accessible, and he found that his experience talking to people while on his mission trip helped.
It’s never easy to start a new job. Hankinson was nervous, finding his way to connect with a whole new set of people in a new city. He got the hang of it, eventually.
“Real Change was easy for me,” Hankinson said. “I said, ‘Dive into that, make something happen for ya.’ I mean, I’m pretty good at talking to people.”
He must be, because the relationships that Hankinson has forged over the years put paid to his notion of good coming back ‘round. When he was struggling financially but needed major dental work done, two customers banded together and covered the entire $4,000 bill.
“They showed me a lot of kindness,” he said.
Hankinson spent three years sleeping rough in Seattle after his roommate — a 35-year-old man named Eric, whom Hankinson, 59, loved like a son — tore apart his apartment while drunk. They were both evicted. The younger man grappled with the addiction that would ultimately kill him at the end of 2021.
Recounting Eric’s struggles, Hankinson began to cry. He had forgiven Eric, he said. He understood, after all. Hankinson wrestled with alcoholism as well, though he’s now celebrated seven years of sobriety. He’s also gone five months without his chain-smoking habit after customers tut-tutted about its impact on his health.
Now, he lives in subsidized housing and wants to adopt a small dog or a cat — something for him to take care of.
Because, despite the trials life has thrown at him, Hankinson is that kind of guy. The one who loves others. The one who gives away the little money he has. The one who feels deeply and finds ways to show it, small and large.
“I have a big heart,” Hankinson told me plainly. It was a bit of an understatement.
Ashley Archibald is the editor of Real Change News.
Read more of the Mar. 9-15, 2022 issue.