Scholarships awarded in memory of shooting victim

In this business we are often called upon to report news of bad things happening to good people. Once in a while, however, something positive springs from tragedy. That was the case this week as the family of a Cayo murder victim has established an educational scholarship fund in his memory. Jeffrey Mas was the twenty-one year old tourist information officer brutally murdered last year at the Cahal Pech Museum on the outskirts of San Ignacio. The scholarship fund is intended to financially assist students attending educational institutions located in the Cayo District. At a recent ceremony, the Cayo Centre for Employment Training dedicated a building in Mas’ memory and announced the names of the first three scholarship recipients. They are Carlos Garcia, Ruth Baños, and Kent Martinez, all students in the tourism programme at CET. Amin August and Jordi Espat have both been charged with the murder of Jeffrey Mas. The killing took place on July twenty-fourth, 2000, in the course of a robbery of Maya artifacts from the museum.