'Remarkable Woman' finalist Brenda Russell thankful for contest support

Apr. 8—Brenda Russell may not have been named Fox56's Remarkable Woman of South Central Kentucky, but her gratitude and wonderment at having been one of the four finalists was still present in her voice.

"Just to make the top four — I was really excited about the idea of going (to Los Angeles) and representing my community and my state, but the idea of taking off a week from work was giving me a whole lot of anxiety," Russell said.

She, along with three other women from around Fox56's viewing area, had a spotlight shown on them and their causes for the month of March in honor of Women's History Month.

Jordyne Carmack, who brought back the Tri-County Leadership Development Program in Laurel, Knox and Whitley counties, was named the winner last week. She was awarded a $1,000 check to her charity and given a trip to Los Angeles to represent the area, where the Nexstar Remarkable Woman of the Year will be announced.

Russell congratulated Carmack in a Facebook post, calling her "passionate about encouraging others to do good things in her community. ... Her enthusiasm is truly contagious, and she will be a great representative for Kentucky when she goes to Hollywood.

But despite not getting the top spot, Russell said she feels like she achieved her ultimate goal of shining a spotlight on Pulaski's God's Food Pantry and the other works she is involved with.

However, she was also quick to point out that she is not the only one making those projects successes.

"God's Food Pantry functions completely on donations. We couldn't do it without our community. All the rest that has come after — Our Place and OakPointe Centre — all of those things are because of the community that has embraced us and loved us. I'm just driving the car, everyone else are the ones pushing it," she said.

Our Place is a redistribution center that has been up and running since 2019. It's purpose is to serve as a connection between large retail places, such as Amazon, who want to donate clothes, appliances, bedding, toys and other tangible items, and the non-profits which could get those items into the hands of those who need it.

Our Place doesn't give those donations directly to people. Rather, it operates a fee-based service where non-profits like school family resource centers or churches can buy items in bulk to distribute to individuals.

For example, some of Our Place's items were sent out to organizations who could dole out supplies to those who lost their homes in the western Kentucky tornadoes or the eastern Kentucky floods.

But Russell hopes to build off of Our Place's success by creating the OakPointe Center, hoping for it to become a sort of one-stop shop for people in need to find counseling, clothing, food, medical help, financial planning, and other resources to get them back on their feet.

Opening such a center is still several years off. The goal is to use the former Palm Beach building, but it needs quite a bit of remedial work to remove asbestos and lead paint in order to make it safer for the community.

Russell has secured a federal EPA grant to help with that, but that grant requires an environmental management to oversee it.

Russell said Friday that they have narrowed down potential grant management companies to two, and that the final decision should be made by the end of April.

From there, renovations on the building should be "imminent," she said, starting this summer.

In the short term, Russell has returned her attention back to her original job, being the executive director for God's Food Pantry.

As with many food pantries, winter food drives may temporarily stock the shelves, but in the summer months those shelves run bare. That's why Russell came up with a unique food drive opportunity she called CANdemonium, where community teams compete in creating a sculpture out of cans.

Russell said there are 13 teams participating, although not all of them will be creating works of art. Rather, some teams have taken on the task of holding food drives, with the purpose of giving everything they collect over to a different team which will creatively stack those cans to make art pieces.

Russell reminded participants that the structures have to built by April 13 and be ready for voting by April 14.

Although the Remarkable Women contest is officially over, the ramifications of being named a Remarkable Women may carry on for a while.

Russell said that plans are in place for all four of the this year's finalists to meet and share ideas on how to affect change in their communities and across the commonwealth.

Also, Russell said she has met with Renee Collins Cobb, who was last year's Remarkable Women winner.

"I think we're going to be starting a group of Remarkable Women who have won the nomination, and we're going to try to do something within that group. I don't know what that looks like yet," Russell said.

Carla Slavey can be reached at cslavey@somerset-kentucky.com