Dana Stites, assistant jail administrator for the Sequoyah County Sheriff ’s Office, knows there may be those who are in awe of her work ethic and devotion to her job. It’s part of her DNA. She doesn’t flaunt it, but she also doesn’t shroud her dedication.

Sheriff Larry Lane, Undersheriff Charles House and County Commissioners Jim Rogers, Beau Burlison and Ray Watts, however, could not hide their praise for the 2018 Employee of the Year Award recipient.

“I wish I could tell you everything she does,” House lamented, acknowledging that Stites does so much that it is very difficult to maintain an accurate inventory of her duties.

But last Monday at the county commissioners’ weekly meeting, he seized the opportunity to highlight at least one of her accomplishments.

“The one thing I’m most proud of is … I know some of you have come up and seen our pantry that we built upstairs,” the undersheriff began his praise. “We have a group, Fruit of the Vine, in Muldrow. It’s church-based that one of our reserves runs, Matt Jones. Monthly, sometimes weekly, Dana will load up six to 10 inmates, and they go unload semi trucks for them in that church. They’ve got a huge warehouse, and they just added a bigger one (adding freezer spaces).

“One, it’s a good thing to do to go help these people because they’re providing to others who are in need of food and things of that nature,” he explained. “But there are a couple of benefits. Like right now, one of my guys, they’re trying to hire him. Matt Jones is trying to find him a house and put him to work and some different things that helps these inmates get back and acclimated into society.

“And then we’ll bring in truckloads of goods. I’m talking trailer loads really,” House continued. “The bad thing is, sometimes it’s at the spur of the moment.”

Then he pinpoints a particular instance the demonstrates Stites’ selfless commitment to her duty.

“The other night, she got a call at 7 o’clock. They said, ‘Hey, if you can come now, we’re fixing to lose all this food.’ Dana got the team together, went down and was able to bring all that back. When you’re trying to feed a hundred inmates three meals a day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it’s just a lot of food that we go through,” House told the commissioners.

“But what people probably don’t realize is, by doing this, it adds a little taste to it (meal), it adds a little flavor to the meals, and it keeps a little bit of peace in the jail system. A lot of jails, they feed the same thing all three meals — every day you get the same meal, because it reduces cost, you don’t have to carry that much inventory, everything’s always the same. With us doing what we do, it does keep [the inmates] a little bit more content. You know, when you put a hundred kids in a room together and tell them to play nice with each other, sometimes it doesn’t work out so well,” he explained.

But the jail also shares with others.

“With those meals we’re donated, we’re donated all that, we then go and fill up some blessing boxes here in the city. We try to fill those up occasionally to spread that good fortune,” House noted.

Lane told the commissioners he has known Stites for about 30 years, and recalls that when she used to work at the Post Office, she would “get there at 3 in the morning, and then work until whenever. She was first in the door and last out,” the sheriff said.

“She’s still that way for us,” Lane decided. “She’s the hardest working …,” at which point Rogers interrupted with a juxtaposition. “She’s a female Tom Rogers,” the commissioner offered, comparing the courthouse maintenance employee who was named 2023 Employee of the Year by the sheriff ’s office.

“She goes, goes, goes,” Lane continued. “We sure are proud of her.”

And House admits few can keep up with the indefatigable Stites.

“Like Larry said, Dana will put you to shame. Don’t try to outwork her, just accept the fact that you’re not gonna get here when she does, you’re not gonna leave when she does. Again, Dana does a ton.” House then reminded the commissioners that the reason for shining the spotlight on Stites, as has been done for others, was because the sheriff ’s office kicked off the new year with a commitment to recognizing some of its employees “to bring some positive back to them, and let them know we do appreciate them.”

Burlison praised the sheriff ’s efforts.

“It’s good to see you guys have people that take their job personally to heart. It shows,” the District 2 commissioner said. “We listen to a lot of things, and we all know our employees take things to heart, and you can tell by the way they do things. We appreciate you all.”

“I can second Dana’s work ethics,” Rogers added. “She’s certainly an asset to our county. You guys are fortunate to have her. We’re fortunate to have everybody. We have some of the best employees around.”