Lavette Renee Butts
She was not a statistic. She was a mother, a grandmother, a fighter. She was everything to six kids who needed her.
My mother, Lavette Renee Butts, raised six children as a single parent. Four boys, two girls. She did it with Lupus eating away at her body and with the kind of strength that does not come from comfort. It comes from love that refuses to quit.
She worked. She showed up. She made Christmas happen when there was no reason it should have. She was the kind of woman who held things together through sheer will, and we all knew it. She was our anchor.
Renee did not have an addiction problem. She was not someone living on the edge. She took a pill. A single counterfeit pill that looked like a real medication. She had no way of knowing what was really in it. Fentanyl was. And it took her within minutes.
"One pill. That's all it takes. My mom was everything to six kids and seven grandchildren, and one pill stole her from all of us. I will spend the rest of my life making sure other families understand the danger before it's too late."
Shareece Wright, Founder / RENEE FoundationThe RENEE Foundation carries her name because her name deserves to be carried forward. Not in grief alone, but in action. Every classroom we walk into, every family we reach, every Narcan kit we put in someone's hands, that is Renee. That is what she would have wanted. She never stopped fighting. We will not either.
The six butterflies in the RENEE Foundation logo represent her six children, still flying because of the wings she gave us. Seven smaller butterflies beneath them represent her seven grandchildren. Her legacy continues in every single one of us.
