Toward the end of his nearly hourlong keynote, Marty Burlsworth asked attendees of the second annual Benjamen Redix Project Gala a question: “How bad do you want it?”
It’s a question his younger brother Brandon often asked his University of Arkansas football teammates.
“Give it your all so you can lay your head on the pillow at night and say, ‘I gave it my all,'” Marty Burlsworth besought the crowd Saturday night inside the White Hall Community Center.
He and his wife of 42 years, Vickie, operate the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation, honoring the first-team All-America offensive lineman who was drafted 63rd overall by the Indianapolis Colts in 1999. The younger Burlsworth, 22, died in a vehicle accident near Alpena, about 17 miles northwest of his hometown of Harrison, a week later on his way to visit his mother.
“Life isn’t easy. It’s hard,” Marty Burlsworth said. “We were never promised that it would be easy.”
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Thus, Marty’s charge to the public was to make the most of every opportunity to overcome adversity, as his brother — a walk-on to the Arkansas football team who earned a scholarship within a semester — did.
The Burlsworth Foundation has organized numerous initiatives in the past 25 years. They include Burl’s Kids, a group of underprivileged children who get to attend their first UA football game; Eyes of a Champion, which provides free eye exams and glasses to underinsured school children; football camps; the Character Award and the Brandon Burlsworth Trophy presented to the nation’s No. 1 college football player who began his career as a walk-on.
The real purpose of Burl’s Kids goes beyond the game and stepping onto a college campus, according to Marty Burlsworth. “We’re into meaningful, long-lasting relationships,” he said.
Shaneisha Robinson knows the struggle of starting and running her own nonprofit. The Benjamen Redix Project, or BRP, is named after her son, a standout athlete who was shot to death in a residential area of North Little Rock on May 18, 2023, just a day before he was to graduate from White Hall High School. The suspect, now 19, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in Pulaski County Circuit Court and was sentenced to one year of probation and a $2,500 fine in August 2024. (He had originally pleaded innocent to a manslaughter charge.)
Redix helped White Hall to the 2021 5A state championship game as a cornerback and won the triple jump at the Meet of Champs just days before his death. He had intended to run track at Southern Arkansas University.
“I’ve actually been following (the Burlsworths’) story since it happened, and I never knew it would actually come full circle that I would actually be them,” Robinson said.
In her closing remarks, Robinson told attendees she always reminded Redix to go “beast mode” on the football field and encouraged her to give back to the community once he became successful. The project that now bears his name, she said, is not about her; it’s bigger than her.
“It has definitely grown,” Robinson said. “We have more support. I’m proud of the things we’re doing and more to come.”
Those things (will) include a summer camp at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Beast of the Week to honor local high school football players and sponsorship of a Strive Like 5 honorary jersey at White Hall High, in honor of Benjamen’s jersey number.
The BRP also awarded a $1,000 scholarship to Watson Chapel High School senior Trinity Mitchner, who plans to attend Xavier University of Louisiana and major in biology/pre-medicine. Mitchner played basketball and ran cross country and track for the Lady Wildcats and holds a 4.1 grade-point average.
“I was surprised, but I know I put a lot of thought and hard work into my essay,” Mitchner said. She wrote an essay about how to give back to and better affect the community.
“Coming from an athlete’s standpoint, I just thought about how we don’t have a lot of places to work out or just hang out and run games,” she said. “I was saying that, like doing it in more facilities, and more mentorship programs and community service programs and looking toward college and where you want to be at.”
Three other community members received Be Great Awards from the BRP: Group Violence Intervention Director Kevin Crumpton Sr. for his involvement in the community; Pursuit Church Pastor Justin Wendel for his work in religious ministries; and Youth Basketball League co-founder Lucas Armstrong for his work in athletics.
Ben Redix Sr., Benjamen’s father, said the BRP recognizes what his son meant to others.
“He was a very outstanding athlete. People looked up to him as that,” Redix Sr. said. “I look back and I’m very proud of my son, as well as how he was growing up to become a great athlete.”
His son’s spirit can still be felt in an event like the gala, Redix Sr. said, adding he’d like for the event to continue.
“I know he’s saying, ‘Dad, I did it,’ and he really did,” Redix Sr. said “He had done what he accomplished in the few years that he was here. I’m very proud of him.”
This version corrects the event Redix won at the 2023 Meet of Champs.
