Ronda Bryant is a devoted mother, teacher, wife and community volunteer, according to the Batesville Kiwanis.
For five years, Bryant has been a member of the Batesville Kiwanis Club, and before that, she was a member of Builders Club in junior high school, Key Club in high school and Circle K International in college.
On Sept. 26, she was named Batesville Kiwanis 2017 Citizen of the Year by the club for her hard work and commitment to the community.
Bryant said she was shocked to receive the recognition.
“I grew up attending Kiwanis events with my parents, my first birthday being spent at a Kiwanis International Convention. I have watched countless wonderful people, Batesville legends in a sense, receive this award. I never in a million years would have guessed that a group of people would hold me in the same caliber as those who have received this honor before me,” she said.
Bryant said the Batesville club has a committee that selects a community member, not necessarily a Kiwanian, to honor each year.
From a young age, Bryant said, she has been focused on impacting the world in a positive way.
Bryant said she is the Kiwanis adviser for all of the Batesville School District K-Kids Clubs, which are Kiwanis clubs for elementary-level children.
She is also the Special Olympics Project coordinator for the club and helped start Club Satellite in Batesville, which is a group of Kiwanis members who meet at alternate locations and times because of scheduling conflicts with the regular meeting.
“I was the chairperson of [Club] Satellite for several years. I also started and chaired the youth cheerleading program that coincides with the youth football program,” she said.
Bryant said the Kiwanis Club just finished getting the youth cheerleading program up and running, and she’s currently working with K-Kids Club members on fall projects.
The Kiwanis Club is special, she said, because it has been a fundamental part of the Batesville community for nearly 100 years.
“Everyone in this community has been affected by this club in some shape or another, be it them, or their children were given a book, or participated in our leadership or sports programs, or even enjoyed the Christmas Parade hosted by the club,” she said.
Bryant said she is a product of the Kiwanis system, and the organization has invested in her throughout her life.
“I’m a product of their system, being in their youth leadership programs growing up and receiving scholarships for my education. It was a no-brainer for me to become a member in such an amazing organization that invests so much in its community and its youth,” she said.
Bryant teaches dance in kindergarten through the sixth grade at West Magnet Elementary School, and said she also coaches the traveling dance team, which comprises students in grades four through six.
She was a kindergarten teacher at Gene George Elementary School in Springdale from 2007-2011; a fifth-grade science and writing teacher at Gene George Elementary from 2011-2012; a fourth-grade literacy teacher at West Magnet Elementary in Batesville from 2012-2014; and an ESL teacher for Eagle Mountain Elementary and Sulphur Rock Elementary in Batesville from 2015-2016, she said.
Bryant said she carries many memories with her from her years of teaching, but one stands out among the rest.
“I was a teacher at George Elementary in Springdale. I started the first Northwest Arkansas K-Kids at that school. At the time, 70 to 80 percent of the school’s students were ESL students, most whose families moved to America and Arkansas to create a better life for their children and came from nothing; so as you could guess — that was also the majority of the membership of the K-Kids club,” she said.
Bryant said her K-Kids students at George Elementary never hesitated to lend a helping hand when they could.
“One year, a co-worker and I started a stocking program, where we collected stocking stuffers for our students to be given at Christmas, as it would be the only Christmas for some. Those K-Kids members … donated to the stockings and helped to stuff hundreds of stockings for their classmates. In the end, most of those students were the ones receiving the gifts, which made it so much more special.”
After graduating from Batesville High School in 2003, Bryant said, she attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in childhood education in 2007.
She then went on to earn a master’s degree in teaching from the U of A in 2008 and completed a program of study in educational leadership at Harding University in Searcy in 2012.
Bryant has been married to her husband, Josh, for nine years, and they have two children: Macy, 5, and Miller, 2.
Bryant also has a 14-year-old stepdaughter, Emma, from Josh’s previous marriage.
“I’m passionate about the youth of our community and developing them into leaders who will someday be in charge of our society,” Bryant said. “A more recent passion has developed with the birth and diagnosis of my daughter, Macy, and that is providing needs and opportunities for inclusion of special-needs children.”
Bryant chairs the Macy’s Stroll and Roll for Angelman Syndrome fundraiser walk, she said, which was named in honor of Macy.
“The Kiwanis Board of Directors decided three years ago to host the event as a way to honor Macy and our family’s work with the Kiwanis. Macy was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome when she was 5 months old. Our family is very involved with the international foundation FAST (Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics) and its campaign to cure AS,” she explained.
Macy’s Stroll and Roll is an annual benefit walk, and all proceeds are donated to FAST to help find a cure, Bryant said.
Last April, the walk raised and donated $11,000, she said.
Miller loves life and entertaining others, she said, and has also learned from a young age how to help care for his sister, Macy.
“For that I am so proud — that he is already such a caring human being,” Bryant said.
Emma enjoys spending time with her friends and has a beautiful singing voice, Bryant said.
Macy is a miracle child who can brighten anyone’s day and loves people, Bryant said.
“She is a very stubborn little girl, but I think that is the exact drive that has made her come as far as she has. We were told she would never walk and would for the most part be a vegetable. This little spark of energy runs, dances and is a competitive gymnast at the age of 5,” Bryant said.
In her free time, Bryant enjoys volunteering in the community, particularly for the Area 16 Special Olympics.
“I’m currently working on building a Special Olympics gymnastics program for athletes in the area,” she said.
She also enjoys crafting and traveling when she has the opportunity to do so.
One person Bryant said she has always admired is her father, Ron Lewallen.
“My entire life, he has never failed to put God, his family and his community first. He has taught me many life lessons, but that is the one that I will always strive to achieve,” she said.
Terrell Tebbetts, president of the Batesville Kiwanis Club, described Bryant as “a doer.”
When she decides something needs to be done, he said, she does whatever it takes to see it through.
She is also incredibly organized and great at getting people involved in the community, he said.
“Ronda drove a small pink pickup truck while in high school — a perfect symbol of femininity combined with a great work ethic,” he said.
Laura Keller, PE teacher at West Magnet Elementary School, described Bryant as a hard worker who strives for excellence.
“I’ve always admired Ronda’s effort in putting her extra hours into the students at West Magnet and the children in the Batesville community. There are a lot of things that Ronda does behind the scenes in many areas that most don’t recognize or see. She continues to work for the community and the children who are a part of it,” Keller said.
“Even as a young child, my father would tell me, ‘If you don’t like something, be the one to change it,’” Bryant said. “That statement has always driven me, so much so that I wanted to instill a similar drive in the future [leaders] of our society.
“What better way to do that than to teach young minds and shape them to be contributing members of society?”
Staff writer Kayla Baugh can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or kbaugh@arkansasonline.com.