Event to benefit woman injured in crash
NAUGATUCK — Months after a tragic accident claimed the life of her fiancé and left Cyndi Corker injured, the Naugatuck resident’s friends are coming together to help her out.
Corker and her fiancé John Maida were on their way to a bed and breakfast in Litchfield County to celebrate their engagement when Maida’s 2004 Cadillac Escalade crossed over the center line and collided head-on with a box truck on Route 44 in Norfolk at 3:21 p.m. Dec. 30.
Maida, 50, was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency personnel. Corker was taken by Life Star Helicopter to Hartford Hospital.
Sharon Letts, a friend of Maida and Corker’s, said Corker was released from the hospital nine days after the accident.
“She still has a lot of pain,” Letts said this week. “She doesn’t have insurance so she didn’t have any rehabilitation.”
Letts has organized a fundraising event to help Corker with her living expenses and medical bills.
The event will take place from 4 p.m. until midnight on March 29 at the Naugatuck Polish Club, 199 Bridge St. The evening will include food, live music by The Whiskey Rebel Band, door prizes and a cash bar.
Letts said she has known Maida most of her life. He was the younger brother of one of her childhood friends, Letts said.
However, it was when Maida and Corker began camping at the White Pines Campsites in Barkhamsted, where Letts and her husband camp, that they became friends.
“Both of them were very open. If we’re all sitting there by the pool they will be the first to say everybody bring something and we will have dinner at our site,” Letts said. “Everybody was welcome.”
Letts said Maida would go around the campsite collecting all of the cans and bottles. At the end of the trip, she said, he would redeem them and donate the money to the Make A Wish Foundation.
“That was the thing about John, if he had it, it was for everybody,” Letts said.
Tickets for the event are $25 each. Tickets can be purchased by calling Letts at (203) 723-5763 or at the door.
Letts said those who can’t make it to the event, but still want to give money can either contact her or donate online at www.gofundme.com/6gbix8.
