Butler Basketball Club was started in 2016 by Randy Butler and Janetta Donovan in their hometown of Newport, Rhode Island. The club quickly grew into a community based program which focuses on using basketball as a tool to give back to the community. The first event held by the club was a free community day in which local law enforcement officers from Aquidneck Island teamed up with youth from their communities and played alongside each other in a fun day of competing and getting to know each other. DJ's provided music, food and drinks were donated, games were played, raffles were drawn and the community got to know their local enforcement officers. We have made this an annual event since the club's inception. 

Next, we provided a free 6-week clinic to the youth living in the North End of Newport. Butler Basketball continued to grow and gain board members and took on its first competitive basketball travel season, which was a huge success. Teams practiced during the week and traveled on the weekends playing in different tournaments. A grand finale to the season had the entire club spending a long weekend together in New Jersey. 

We have an annual "Spread Kindness" day where the youth in our program get together to put surprise gifts together to pass out all over their community. They place positive messages with flowers on car windshields, leave bus fare and umbrella's at bus stops, donate to the local shelters, bake for the local police and fire departments and do other things like place laundry soap at local laundromats for anyone in need. Butler Basketball Club donates backpacks filled with supplies at the start of each school year. In 2020 they donated over 400 backpacks! Butler Basketball donates winter hats to the local elementary schools so teachers may pass them out as needed. Butler adopts families during Christmas in which gifts are donated to help with the burden during the holidays. We give away a Butler Basketball scholarship to a participant who is in high school each year. Butler Basketball hosts an outdoor summer league in Middletown, RI as well as many clinics throughout the year. 

Butler has teamed up with Bob's Big Give and started an annual Turkey giveaway. This provided hundreds of Thanksgiving meals to local families. During Covid, we teamed up again to give out over 1100 cases of Blount Soup to local families in need!

Randy Butler has been recognized by the Women's Resource Center as one of their "Most Influential Men" as well as the NAACP as a leader in his community. In 2018 Randy won the Jr NBA Celtics Coach of the Year!

Butler Basketball Club volunteers and board members all share a common goal of creating an environment for the youth to compete, learn and socialize. This will help to instill the vital developmental assets of fair play, hard work and tolerance. We focus on teaching fundamentals, working hard, having a good attitude and respecting your peers. We focus on learning to get the best out of the athletes we have, and if they don't win every game that is ok because they will definitely improve as athletes and teammates. They are held accountable to become successful. 

Basketball is our tool but our program is much more than that, and that is the reason we started it to begin with.

Take a look at our club through our video on the homepage video link!