For nearly 25 years, Lucy Bonds and Lucy’s Coffee and Tea provided a cozy space on University Boulevard for members of the UAB community to connect and recharge.

For many, Lucy’s was not just a place to get incredible coffee and food but a place to study, relax, enjoy stimulating and fun conversation, and work on projects that had the potential to change the world.

Lucy’s started with a cart, serving the employees of UAB’s hospital, clinics and schools. Once the shop opened, it became a home away from home for thousands of UAB students as they studied and prepared for their rigorous professional careers. Through the years, Lucy and her employees greeted people by name when they popped in for “the usual.” Regular customers could order on prepaid credit — the tally kept on a giant chalkboard — when they may not have had a wallet handy, then grab whatever fuel they needed with the words, “it’s on the board.” Lucy’s customers were so loyal she was able to drive off a national coffee chain, which opened, and then closed, next door.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Lucy shifted to providing hot, homemade meals to UAB health care workers on the front lines. But without her thousands of customers on campus, Lucy was forced to make the difficult decision to close the shop.

And her longtime friends and customers are raising money for a UAB student scholarship in her name, to put money “on the board” for deserving students and keep that spirit of support alive for future Blazers.