Kadijah Bulter: Familial Love
Family is important. It’s what impacts a child’s personality and the choices they make down the line. A good family can teach a child the value of relationships and doing the right thing. Even after a family member has died, their legacy lives on. Doing good inspires others to do the same. Kadijah Butler is the example of being influenced by family to do right by others. Her father Craig D. Butler was a hero in her life, and when he was shot dead in 1999, she decided to found the Craig D. Butler Scholarship Foundation. This would not only provide students financial security for college, but also lessen the likelihood of gun violence amongst youth, as the murderer of Kadijah’s father was only 14 years old. Her efforts for her family and community embody the month of love.
When we started talking about her creating her foundation, she admits that she struggled hard, and was learning as she went along. “When I first started the foundation, it was like, I didn’t know the first thing about it.” She was limited in information for specifically starting a scholarship foundation. Thankfully, she had assistance from those who started family scholarships, but she had to get into learning and filling out important documents and tax information, then fully fleshing out the foundation, and then finally proceeding with reaching out to high schools in her city. Then, the last thing she needed, COVID-19, reared its ugly head. This left her with no one to contact, as everything had shut down, but she was still determined to provide for people despite the circumstances.
Interestingly enough, this is where her work as an author came in. When it was initially suggested, she was certain she’d never be an author. However, as a testament to her character, Kadijah ended up going through with it because she knew families and aspiring non-profit founders would need the information she had gained. With that, she ended up writing not one, not two, but three books. I imagine a fourth one’s in the works right now.
One thing to note about Kadijah is her resilience. COVID-19 never stopped her from building her foundation and giving much-needed resources to her community, but even that’s just one example. When her father’s murderer was scheduled to have a parole hearing, Kadijah was barely notified and could’ve very easily missed this occasion. To avoid this scenario, she actively scouted out the court officials and gathered as much information as she needed on the date and time. The biggest disgrace was that Kadijah had to put in all of this effort in the first place, considering how easily the city could find her and properly inform her.
Kadijah’s determination, endurance, and compassion have elevated her to becoming a light in the darkness. A lot of kids now have stronger hope for their future, and can reach their potential thanks to her scholarships. On top of that, she works every day to ensure gun violence in her hometown is brought to an end, so no more children have to face the same tragedy she did. All in honor of her father. Kadijah Butler is exactly what familial love looks like.