Dr. Mozell Haymon Memorial Scholarship Fund

My father, Bishop Mozell Haymon, was the most selfless human being I have ever known. He was a Vietnam War veteran who came home carrying wounds that too many veterans carried alone. He battled alcoholism honestly and openly — never hiding where he had been — because he understood that his story was the very thing that would save someone else. When he made the decision to get sober, he didn't just change his own life. He changed thousands. In April 1978, with nothing but $1,000 in seed money and an unshakeable faith in a Higher Power, my father co-founded the Serenity Club, Inc. in Gary, Indiana alongside his sponsor, the late Henry J. Johnson. The building had frozen pipes, unpaved streets, and every reason to fail. He forged ahead anyway. Over the next four decades, that small seed grew into Serenity House of Gary — a nine-acre residential recovery campus at 5157 Harrison Street hosting over 18 AA, NA, and EA meetings every single week, serving men and women regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, HIV status, or disability. My father was a Deacon, a Pastor, and a Bishop. But everyone who truly knew him understood that his deepest calling was never the pulpit. It was the folding chair in a circle of people who had nothing left to lose. He lived and breathed the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. He walked beside every person willing to take that first step and whispered the truth that became his life's motto: "Life begins with sobriety." He was recognized for his extraordinary service in ways that reflected the full scope of who he was. He received the MLK Drum Major Award, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for those who dedicate their lives to improving the human condition. He was named Father of the Year and Citizen of the Year by the Gary, Indiana community. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Theology from GMOR. And he made history as the first African American President of AHHAP — the Association of Halfway Houses Accreditation and Programs — a barrier-breaking milestone that represented every person in recovery who had ever been told they didn't belong at the table. He was also a fierce and unwavering champion of education. He pushed everyone around him — his family, his clients, his community — toward secondary education because he believed that sobriety opened the door, but knowledge was what you built your life with once you walked through it. Education was freedom to him. And he wanted everyone to have it. In his final years, my father suffered from dementia and could no longer lead the institution he had built from nothing. It broke my heart to watch. But nothing — not illness, not time — can erase what he gave to the world or silence the thousands of voices that are different today because Mozell Haymon refused to give up on himself or anyone else. I am his daughter. And I refuse to let his legacy fade. My Goal With This Fund My goal is to establish a permanent, self-sustaining annual scholarship in my father's name that grows every single year. Here is what I am working toward Year One: Raise enough to fund at least one $500–$1,000 scholarship award. Get the word out to Gary, Indiana — to Serenity House alumni, recovery communities, churches, schools, and veterans' organizations who knew my father personally. Make sure the first recipient feels the full weight of the honor they are receiving. Year Two and Beyond: Grow the fund to support multiple recipients annually. Expand outreach nationally to recovery communities, AA and NA networks, HBCUs, community colleges, and vocational programs across all 50 states. Partner with organizations that serve people in recovery who are pursuing education. Long Term: Build this into an endowed scholarship fund — one that generates enough interest annually to award scholarships in perpetuity, so that Bishop Haymon's name and mission live on long after all of us are gone. Community Events: Host annual fundraising events in Gary, Indiana — a memorial dinner, a community walk, or a celebration of recovery — that raise money for the fund while also keeping his story alive in the community that loved him. Why This Matters Right Now: Gary, Indiana has been one of the hardest-hit cities in America when it comes to addiction, poverty, and lack of opportunity. My father knew that. He stayed anyway. He built anyway. He believed in Gary and in every person who called it home. This scholarship is an act of faith in that same community — a declaration that the next generation of Gary's sons and daughters deserves every chance to rise. Addiction does not discriminate. It reaches into every zip code, every family, every faith community in this country. The students this scholarship is designed to serve are not statistics — they are survivors. They are the children of addicts who refused to repeat the cycle. They are the people in recovery who finally feel stable enough to invest in their future. They are the social workers and counselors and pastors in training who are going to save the next generation of lives. They deserve to be invested in. My father gave everything he had to people the world had written off. This fund is my way of making sure that work never stops. "Life begins with sobriety." — Bishop Mozell Haymon