Annual Gifts / Gifts from Staff

Kim Orchard appreciates Foundation's community focus

As director of pharmacy for Group Health in Spokane, Kim Orchard worked down the hall from an office of the Foundation. Orchard quickly became so impressed that she began donating a portion of every paycheck to the Foundation. That was 13 years ago and the deductions have continued—in growing amounts—ever since. "If you don't see it, you never miss it," Orchard says with a chuckle.

The most impressive thing about the Foundation, says Orchard, is its focus on community. "You can actually see where your donations are being spent," she says. "I try to encourage my staff to support the Foundation as well. It's local and it's doing good work.

Orchard spent eight years in Spokane before becoming Group Health's clinical services administrator in 2001. Now in Seattle, she oversees statewide contracts involving everything from ambulance services to alternative medicine.

As a pharmacy student at the University of Washington, Orchard interned at Group Health. Then she joined as a pharmacist at Group Health's brand-new Eastside hospital. "It was a fantastic experience," she recalled. "We started from scratch. It was a time of great flexibility and learning."

Orchard appreciates the sense of mission shared by Group Health staff. "They're not here just for the paycheck," she says. "They're here because they want to do the right thing."

That's also why Orchard—a founding member of the Leadership Circle and a Platinum-level donor—so strongly supports the Foundation. In Spokane, Orchard served on a committee that reviewed Foundation grant applications, including one from a program that assists teenage mothers. "It was just so rewarding to see these teenagers with major needs have some of those needs met because of the work the Foundation is doing," she says.