Almost a year since Benjamen Redix died, his memory lives on with the purpose of helping others.
"This is the most difficult thing my family has endured, but our family is learning to push through pain with a purpose to help others," Flo Rambert, Redix's grandmother, said.
Rambert spoke to a small crowd inside the White Hall Community Center honoring Redix's memory with the inaugural Benjamen Redix Project Gala. North Little Rock police officer Tommy Norman, known for his community-oriented approach which has gone viral on social media, was the keynote speaker.
The Project, which Redix's mother Shaneisha Robinson started about two months after his death last May 18, will award two $1,000 scholarships to Jefferson County high school student-athletes next month.
"After I started the foundation ... I'm always over the top, so I knew I wanted to do a gala," Robinson said.
Redix was a football and track-and-field standout at White Hall High School who won the triple jump in the Meet of Champions last May and had earned a track scholarship to Southern Arkansas University. He was less than 24 hours away from graduation when he was found shot to death in the 5800 block of Lynch Drive in North Little Rock.
(Jimari Douglas, now 18, described as Redix's friend, pleaded innocent to a manslaughter charge and is scheduled for a juvenile transfer hearing in Pulaski County next month. Douglas reportedly told police the gun accidentally went off when he stripped it down.)
The basketball gymnasium inside the community center was transformed into a ballroom of black and white drapes flowing from a giant chandelier, where four community leaders received awards from the Project's board. Pine Bluff High School football Coach Micheal Williams was honored for his work in athletics, State Farm agent Kevin Bonnette was awarded for his service to community, local Pastor Christopher Mack received an award for religious ministries and recent White Hall High School interim football Coach Jason Mitchell was acknowledged for resilience in the wake of the deaths of both Redix and then-head coach Ryan Mallett last June 27.
"It makes you feel good to be able to be around a man like that and be honored with an award with his name on it," said Mitchell, who also coached Redix in track. "It makes it that much extra special. An award is a good thing, but when it has Ben's name, it makes it that much more special."
Williams saw Redix up close during Pine Bluff's first rivalry football game against White Hall in 2022, which was his first season to lead the Zebras.
But receiving an award from the organization named after the wide receiver and cornerback was a surprise he didn't see coming.
Williams and the Zebras endured tragedy of their own on Jan. 12 when their teammate, sophomore receiver Kendall Burton, was shot to death in the area of East 25th Avenue and South Georgia Street.
"Personally, I handled it to where it was sorrow for me because the kids, not just them but all these kids, I'm just like the gun violence has to stop," Williams said. "But it hits closer to home because I just got through seeing Ben two weeks prior (to his death). It hurts me when I see that, and then dealing with Kendall Burton's death, it's just a sorrow come over my body.
"But I also know the work that we are doing, not just me but all my coaches, we're doing a great work because it could possibly be way more than just Ben and Kendall and Tyler Thornton," Williams added. Thornton was a second baseman at Watson Chapel High School who was gunned down at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park last May 7.
Homicides involving teens as victims and suspects befell Pine Bluff all too often during 2023. That's why Williams made a plea to adults at the gala to keep their children involved in sports and other health-related activities.
"I know people get mad at me all the time because it seems like I have my kids at school all day, but I do that for a reason," Williams said.
"I want you to do your work here at school. I don't want you to wait to go home. I want you to do your work, football, and you'll be so tired, all you can do is eat and go to sleep."
Robinson recalled a time during spring break last year when she and Redix, one of her six children, were talking on a beach. Redix, she said, told her he wanted to come back to organize a football camp for the kids when he became successful after college. Now, the Project is planning an all-sports camp in July at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
Not only that, the Project will honor a high school football player from Jefferson County after each game starting this coming season with a Beast of the Week award.
"I always told Benjamen to go beast mode, so that's fitting," Robinson said.
Rambert said her grandson might say "Aw, man, did you all have to do that?" if he saw the gala in person. Meanwhile, Mitchell has an idea what his star athlete was saying from Heaven.
"Ben's saying was, 'I got you, Coach.' I got you," he said. "He's probably looking down right now saying, 'I got you, Coach.'"
Christopher Mack
Jason Mitchell
The gymnasium at the White Hall Community Center is transformed into a ballroom for the first Benjamen Redix Project Gala on Saturday, April 13, 2024. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)
Attendees give a standing ovation for Shaneisha Robinson, founder of the Benjamen Redix Project and Redix's mother, at the organization's inaugural Gala. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)