Mozel Sanders Foundation honors 11 students with scholarships, prepares for Thanksgiving dinner
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Mozel Sanders Foundation is making big strides to ensure that all students are able to pursue their dreams and achieve higher education.
This comes as the foundation nears its annual Thanksgiving dinner in partnership with WISH-TV and the Financial Center First Credit Union.
For many years, the Mozel Sanders Foundation, which is based at the Mt. Vernon Community Missionary Baptist Church has served hundreds of thousands of people and this year they’re pushing to do more.
The Mozel Sanders Foundation is known for feeding those in need, but the organization does much more.
- Mozel Sanders Foundation sauces support feeding hungry, Indy Trucks donates van
- Mozel Sanders Foundation to feed Thanksgiving dinner to thousands of families
“This is great. We love doing this every year. We’ve done it for the last 16 years. It’s just so empowering to give back,” the vice president of Financial Wellness at the Financial Center First Credit Union, Jamie Davidson, said.
One by one, 11 high school and middle school students received hundreds of dollars in scholarship money for a headstart on their college savings.
“This is our future and this scholarship gets them a jumpstart and it empowers them to know that they can go out and make a difference,” the chief operating officer at the Mozel Sanders Foundation, Stephanie Sanders, said.
“It is very important because some kids are excelling more than others in class and this scholarship is for the ones that maybe were making Cs and now are making Bs. Maybe they were talkative in class and now have a better attitude,” the CEO of the Mozel Sanders Foundation, Stephen Sanders, said.
Devon Franklin is a student at Westlane Middle School and a Reverend Roosevelt Sanders Empowerment Scholarship recipient. Franklin says she loves giving back to her community by supporting the homeless.
“I really want to go to college all my life. I want to go to either Purdue or IUPUI. I love Purdue,” Franklin said. “It only takes a bit of time to help people and even if you only do it for like ten minutes it really helps people and they appreciate anything.”
Sanders says in partnership with Financial Center First Credit Union the scholarship honors her late husband Rev. Roosevelt Sanders and empowers children and adults.
“A little bit over $60,000 over the last 16 years. We’d love to give more every year if we can. Look forward to this every year. Love it. We do the scholarships and then we do the annual Thanksgiving dinner with them as well, which we love,” Davidson said.
The Mozel Sanders Foundation also gives away groceries every second Thursday of the month at the Mt. Vernon Community Missionary Baptist Church.