The Lionel and Cathlene Butler Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation designed and organized to award scholarships to deserving African-American high school graduates entering institutions of higher learning, or continuing education in such institutions.
The Lionel and Cathlene Butler Foundation was founded in June 2017 as a way for us to honor two of our fallen adult children, Yolanda J. Osby and Cevonn (Vonn) L. Butler.
Our foundation offers two scholarships, one each in their honor, and each with its own criteria. Scholarships are as follows: The Yolanda Osby Memorial Scholarship; and the Cevonn L. Butler Entrepreneurial Spirit Scholarship. Criteria and applications are included here on our website.
We believe that higher education is an important avenue to leading a more quality and productive life and worked over the years to make a difference in bringing our beliefs into reality. A family member was actively involved both with a nonprofit scholarship fund and a church scholarship during most of the 1980's and was able to see the positive benefits the organizations' scholarships were having on students of a humble background.
Many years after the loss of our daughter Yolanda in 1996, our goal to sponsor a scholarship in her honor was realized in the Fall of 2015. We awarded a $1000.00 scholarship in her honor and did so again in 2016 and 2018. We plan to continue this outreach annually.
We experienced another loss in late 2016 - that of a son. Soon after the loss of our son Cevonn, we endowed a scholarship in his honor at the Texas Southern University School of Communication.
In addition, we were blessed to marshall resources to establish this foundation in honor of both of our children.
