Suncrash Raises Scholarship for Max

Max and Noah in traditional Maya costume

Juan (Max) Tiney Ixtulul wants to be a doctor, and Suncrash thinks he should be, … with a little help from his Canadian friends.

“We are carrying on doing what we started out to do,” says Suncrash organizers Noah Kearey Moreland. “Provide venues for young musicians, and raise money for worthy causes,” adds co-organizer Amber McGarvey.

Amber and Noah met Max in Guatemala in 2009. “In fact Max is the reason the Canada Maya Scholarships got started a year ago,” Noah says. “Max had to drop out of medical school to help earn enough money to send his five younger brothers and sisters to school.”

“After grade six everyone has to pay tuition in Guatemala,” Amber explains, “and that is the second poorest country in the Americas.”

That’s the reason Amber and Noah put together a Suncrash Concert at the McGarvey home recently. Guitarists David Ross Macdonald, Andy McTavish and Nate Mills, of Run with the Kittens, gave a guitar workshop and later performed for seventy.

“We raised over $2000 for Max’s scholarship,” Amber reports. “We need another thousand to keep him in school this year,” Noah adds.

Both Noah and Amber are also on the Orillia Committee of the Canada Maya Scholarship Fund which operates as part of local charity Paso Por Paso founded by eight retired Orillia secondary school teachers.

“They needed young blood,” Noah claims. “And we are it,” adds Amber.

“It fits our Suncrash goals of getting young people involved in music and in helping other young people. We thought a year ago we could help one student, but Max could not go back to school last September. In the meantime we have taken on six other indigenous Maya students in Guatemala,” Noah explains.

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