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Volunteering a top priority for justice of the peace

Youngest JP ever elected in Garland County enjoys showing community what Catholics do

Published: March 28, 2023   

By Anthony Reiter
Special to Arkansas Catholic

Courtesy Dayton Myers
Dayton Myers, deputy grand knight for Knights of Columbus Council #6419 in Hot Springs, is sworn in Jan. 1 to the Garland County Quorum Court by Division 3 Circuit Court Judge Lynn Williams.

Name: Dayton Myers

Parish: St. John the Baptist

City: Hot Springs

Age: 20

Family: father, David; mother, Darla; sister, Lexi; two nephews

Why you want to know Dayton: Dayton is the deputy grand knight and program director of Knights of Columbus Council #6419 in Hot Springs. He is involved in most of the council’s projects from pro-life fundraising to organizing an annual first responders’ breakfast. Dayton also is in his first year as a Garland County justice of the peace for District 7, the youngest person ever elected to the county’s Quorum Court. When he isn’t volunteering or serving his county government, he works as a real estate broker and attends classes online from National Park College in Hot Springs.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

What feeds you spiritually?
Charity work has always been the way that I’ve found myself to be closest to God …  I really found charity work to be the way that I can not only help other people but to show my Catholic faith to the entire Hot Springs community. Being in the Knights of Columbus really allows me to do that because the Catholic population in Hot Springs and Garland County is fairly small compared to most other areas of the country. When we’re out there doing charity, it sets us apart.

What projects have you been involved in with the Knights and the Church?
What I’m most proud of probably is the 9/11 First Responder breakfasts that we do every year at St. Mary’s, I was one of the chairmen that helped start that seven years ago. We feed all the first responders in Garland County a breakfast, and we host a nondenominational prayer service.

In addition to that, I'm also the head of the baby bottle campaign that serves as a fundraiser for Changepoint crisis pregnancy center. It involves passing out baby bottles and allowing people to fill them up with coins or cash and then bring them back over about a month-long period … The most recent accomplishment that is really kind of exciting is our Safe Haven baby box that we just got approved and will be installed here in Garland County and will be open to the public in probably 30 days. That’s going to allow for women to safely surrender, anonymously, a child up to 30 days old at the fire station downtown in Hot Springs. We were really excited to get that approved and to partner with the city to do that.

What about your political involvement? How does faith come into the picture?
My Catholic faith was not something that I hid; it was actually something that I campaigned on. Being involved in the Knights of Columbus, being involved in St. John’s was the main staple of what I was running on and the fact that I was pro-life. Being on the Quorum Court, there are not necessarily a whole lot of pro-life issues that I’m forced to deal with as it’s more of a budgetary body. But, believe it or not, when I was running, people were talking to me more about the fact that I was pro-life than anything. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. I tried to get a pro-life resolution passed to declare Garland County a pro-life county a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t make it out of committee.

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