STEP ROCK — Dana Stewart makes good use of her time.
Stewart — who is the executive director for the White County Community Foundation, is heavily involved with the Farm Bureau in White County and the state, serves as a local 4-H Club leader and also runs her family’s cattle farm — was recently given an award for her leadership skills.
Stewart received the Stanley E. Reed Leadership Award from the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation during the annual Farm Bureau conference Nov. 28 at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
“To receive this award in [Reed’s] legacy and honor, it’s really humbling,” Stewart said. “I’m really grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had within the Farm Bureau to help me do a lot of things outside of the Farm Bureau.
“To be recognized for some of those leadership opportunities and skills that I’ve been able to develop is truly humbling.”
The award is given in memory of former Arkansas Farm Bureau President Stanley E. Reed, who was killed in an automobile accident in July 2011. Reed, who was 59 when he died, served as Arkansas Farm Bureau president from 2003-08. The award is given to active members, 36-45 years of age, for outstanding leadership in their county, Farm Bureau and community.
“The award is in honor of Stanley Reed, who passed too quickly from this life,” Stewart said. “He was a great leader in Arkansas agriculture, as well as the state in general. He left a legacy of being involved in the community and in agriculture in the state and having true leadership skills.”
Harry Willems, director of organization and member programs for the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said Stewart is deserving of the award.
“She’s an outstanding leader,” Willems said. “She is a really great person and a great leader — all around. We’re just glad to have her in the Farm Bureau.”
Stewart is a fifth-generation cattle farmer, operating Martin Cattle Co., which has 100 head of cattle for beef production. The family raises Gelbvieh and Balancer cattle.
“My kids will be the sixth generation,” Stewart said. “They go out and do chores with us. It’s really important. People talk about farming being in their blood. It really is. It’s something that I’ve always known, something that has always been important to me. To be able to continue to do that is amazing.”
The farm was named after her family’s last name of Martin.
“My dad had three daughters and no sons to carry on that Martin name,” Stewart said, “but we will always be Martin Cattle Co.”
The company started in 1936 with its first registered cow.
Stewart’s day job as executive director of the White County Community Foundation is rewarding to her, she said.
“We provide charitable-giving tools that improve our local community throughout the state,” she said. “So that is really fulfilling — to be involved in my community and working with nonprofits and supporting the work they do.”
Stewart’s involvement with the Farm Bureau in White County includes having served as chairwoman of the White County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee.
“I serve on several local committees there, and I’m also a local 4-H Club leader,” she said. “We just started a new club about a year ago. Our last meeting, we had 22 kids there. I was very excited about the growth that we’ve had.”
Stewart said she enjoys giving back to the community because so many people helped her as she was growing up.
“I think back a lot to the opportunities I have been given and about the people who made those possible and the circumstances that made it possible,” Stewart said. “I just want to be able to provide that for somebody else.”
Stewart said she benefited from being in 4-H.
“I was a 4-H member from the time that I was 9 years old,” she said. “That program taught me so much and was really the foundation of a lot of leadership building that I had — learning how to run a meeting and what an agenda is, participating in contests and trying new things.
“It was important for me to be able to provide that for other kids in my community, too, rather than wait on someone else to do that. I have the capability and the opportunity to do so.”
Stewart is a 2001 graduate of White County Central High School in Judsonia. She attended Arkansas State University-Beebe for two years before transferring to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture communications in 2005.
Stewart and her husband, Joshua, have been married 15 years. They have two children: daughter Jewel, 8, and son Henry, 5.
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.