Progress 2022: Distinguished Through the Decades

“It really gave me confidence I didn’t have as an insecure teenager. That helped throughout the rest of my growing up and college career. Being on stage is scary, and having people stare at you is intimidating; being able to go through that helped everything else.”

Today Russellville High alumnus Lindsay (Gerstman) Almond is a pharmacist at CVS in Vestavia Hills. She and husband Brent have two children: Ava, 11, and Asher, 8. From the scholarships acquired to the confidence inspired, Almond said she can see how the Junior Miss program helped pave the path for the life she has now.

“I had always participated in the Miss RHS pageant and had a role model in Kitty Rogers at the time, who participated in Junior Miss as well,” explained Almond, who said she was convinced to give it a try after “seeing her go through it and the opportunities it afforded her with scholarships and friendships.”

It was a decision she didn’t regret. “It was a lot of fun,” said Almond, adding the program was particularly rewarding for the opportunity it provided for “getting to get outside your world and interacting with other people throughout different counties and getting to meet new girls from across the state.”

With a partial scholarship to the University of North Alabama, Almond followed in her pharmacist father’s footsteps – “He really encouraged me to look into it, as far as the flexibility that it offered. It was a good, stable career, and it was always going to be needed,” – and earned her degree from the pharmacy school at Auburn University.

After college Almond married and settled down in the Birmingham area with her attorney husband. She said working as a pharmacist has made it possible to have a fulfilling career balanced with a happy home life. She loves “helping people, whether it be through just filling their prescriptions or counseling them on medications,” she said. “Sometimes just having a conversation with people makes such a difference, especially the elderly population.” Away from CVS she is “chaos coordinator” for her family of four, from camping trips in their travel trailer to mountain biking trips, her children’s sporting events and more. She said she has picked up tennis and has recently re-embraced her love of piano – her talent at Junior Miss, as she performed “Tarantella” by Albert Pieczonka, and something she can bond over with her daughter, who is also learning to play. “It’s been fun to pick that back up.”

In high school Almond was active both at RHS as well as with her family at Russellville First Baptist. The daughter of Mickey and Susan Gerstman, who still live in Russellville, said she returns often with her family to visit the grandparents, and Russellville still holds a special place in her heart. “I greatly appreciate how I was brought up. The small town environment – you can’t beat it. You pretty much know everybody, and you have a chance to do all the things you want to do, as a kid,” she said. “It’s just home.”