Fundraiser Aids Worcester Youth Director Hit By Driver In Leicester

WORCESTER, MA — A longtime community leader and director of Worcester's youth programs office was severely injured Friday in a traffic collision in Leicester, and now friends and family are trying to raise enough money to pay costs related to her care.

According to Leicester police, Worcester Division of Youth Opportunities Director Raquel Castro-Corazzini was hit Friday around 4 p.m. along Route 56 just north of the Stafford Street intersection. She was a pedestrian at the time, police said.

Police found Castro-Corazzini trapped under a vehicle, and workers from a company near the scene of the collision used a tow winch to free her. Leicester police and the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council were still investigating the cause of the collision on Monday.

A GoFundMe fundraiser started over the weekend is trying to raise $70,000 to help pay for Castro-Corazzini's medical bills, and to support her two daughters while she's in the hospital. The page had raised about $22,000 as of Monday evening.

"Raquel gives so much to the community with decades of youth work, organizing, advancing racial equity, and bringing her heart and light to every space she’s in," fundraiser founder Valerie Zolezzi-Wyndham said on the GoFundMe page. "More than ever, Raquel needs us to show up the ways she’s always shown up to better our world. It’s our time to hold her and rally around her with love and tenderness."

Castro-Corazzini, who moved to Worcester at age 2 from Ecuador, was a past recipient of the National Child Labor Committee's Lewis Hine Award and a mentor at the Dynamy Youth Academy. As Worcester's Youth Opportunities director, she oversees programs that deter youth violence, jobs programs for young people and the Advisory Committee on Youth.