Associate professor of music, Mitch Lutch, rehearsing the combined Yucatan Youth Bands, March 2013.
Led by associate professor of music Mitch Lutch, Central College is now in its third year of donating musical instruments, accessories and lesson books to benefit the Yucatan Youth Instrumental Music Education Program based in Merida, Yucatan, for students with otherwise limited exposure to music opportunities.
The program aims to provide music instruction and performance opportunities to underprivileged students from across the Yucatan. Founded in 2008 by master violinist Jose Luis Chan Sabido, hundreds of students are now involved with the program, which is supported entirely by equipment donations and outside financial contributions.
Throughout the year, Central collects donations of instruments in good working condition on the program’s behalf. Instruments in particular need are oboes, bassoons, trombones, tubas and percussion instruments, though other donations are equally appreciated. The program also gratefully accepts music accessories, including percussion sticks; bass, cello, viola and violin strings; trumpet mutes; lesson books and sheet music. Monetary donations are greatly appreciated, as well.
In the past two years, Central has collected and donated 30 instruments and dozens of accessories and lesson books. The donations are transported from Pella to the Yucatan by Central faculty attending global experiential learning workshops in Mexico as well as by students who study in Merida, the location of one of Central’s many study abroad programs.
For more information or to organize a donation, contact Lutch at 641-628-5238 or lutchm@central.edu.
