Holiday is first recipient of Canyon de Chelly scholarship

CHINLE

Shaun Martin, athletic director for Chinle High and organizer of the Canyon De Chelly Ultra Marathon, announced earlier that he awarded the new Canyon De Chelly Ultra Scholarship to Alisia Holiday.

Holiday is sophomore at Fort Lewis College, studying occupational therapy, and is a member of the Skyhawks cross-country team.

“We always wanted to obviously give back to the community of runners in some way, shape or form,” said Martin. “So the ultimate goal has finally been achieved and that’s to be able to select a student-athlete, a runner, who is in college to provide them with a scholarship to help them continue chase the dream of a college degree.”

The scholarship is an award that few people have heard about and had just been announced over Facebook on Martin’s and Holiday’s profiles.

Right now, the scholarship offers $1,000, but Martin hopes they can expand the amount in the future and maybe even offer it to two recipients, one boy and one girl, should funds become available.

“It was definitely a surprise when Shaun Martin actually called me to tell me I would be the first recipient and I thought it was really surprising how he chose me for that,” said Holiday. “I felt really honored to become the first recipient.”

Holiday first started running at Chinle Junior High under the tutelage of coach Darlene Norberto.

Later she volunteered to help at the aid stations set up for the Canyon De Chelly Ultra Marathon and also attended Wings of America camps.

When she graduated from Chinle High in 2019, she was state runner-up and later ran for Central Arizona College where she competed in nationals.

According to Martin, she came close to earning All-America status, which would have been a huge accomplishment for a college freshman.

At first Holiday didn’t fully grasp why she runs until she ran with Wings of America around Bears Ears National Monument.

“At first I didn’t really understand the concept of why we’re doing it (running), I just thought that we were doing it just to get miles in,” Holiday said. “But as we kept running I kind of developed this spiritual sense as to why we’re doing it and I think with this scholarship it has opened my eyes to the spiritual realm of the Canyon de Chelly Ultra.

“There are health benefits to my immune system,” Holiday continued. “Keeping my heart healthy, keeping my lungs healthy, I think that running has many health benefits to it and just spiritually and emotionally, you know.

“If you’re going through a rough time or stress you always have running as that sort of shoulder to lean on and running really makes you feel connected with the earth and everything else and you just feel one with yourself.”

This coming weekend, the Fort Lewis Skyhawks women’s cross-country team will compete at the RMAC Championships in Colorado Springs.

“She’s performing really well as an athlete and also as a student,” Martin said, “and because we already had a relationship with her and because we knew she was doing all things really well, we wanted to offer her that scholarship in the very first year.”

Martin said that all funds for the scholarship come from the money generated by the annual ultra-marathon event. This year’s revenue came from the Hashké virtual run that Martin hosted this October.

He said the runners who participate are very generous to the local running community and want to support young athletes.

“For the runners, for the people who participate in the ultra, or the virtual run,” Martin said, “it’s really a cool thing because they get to see directly where the profits for the event go and it goes directly back to local runners. And now to continue to push the education message, it’s just been a dream come true for the race organizers.”

Martin hopes that this scholarship is only the beginning and that in time it will grow.

Although they are still working on the requirements, the organizers thus far agreed that potential candidates for the scholarship must need financial assistance, be an athlete and maintain a good GPA.

“I think big picture, starting the ultra-marathon nine year ago, it was definitely in our conversation,” Martin said. “It was just a matter of time before we were able to actual do it but I think with the way the Canyon De Chelly Ultra is going and how the virtual run went, we were finally in a place where we would be able to allocate some funds specifically for this scholarship.

“It was kind of a culmination of the goals of the event to be able to do this,” he said, “and now that we have done it, it’s amazing to see a world of runners come together and support it. And now we just want to focus on how we can grow that scholarship initiative.”

Although the current COVID-19 pandemic caused some hinderance, it had not affected Holiday’s training or performance in anyway as she listens to caution and follows safety measures.

She is focusing on not only her classwork, but also on the upcoming run this weekend.

She hopes one day to be able to run in the Canyon de Chelly Ultra marathon herself but should Martin need her assistance hosting the event, she said she would gladly help.

“Big thank you to the Canyon de Chelly Ultra organization and Shaun Martin and his family for giving me this opportunity to be the first recipient for the Canyon de Chelly Ultra Scholarship,” Holiday said.

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