Motorcycle ride funds scholarship

Even in death, Carrie Martin is making a difference.

A benefit motorcycle ride and festival is set for Sunday in honor of Martin, who was 20 when she was murdered in her Larksville apartment in May 2004.

Proceeds benefit the Carrie Martin “We Can Make the World a Better Place” Scholarship awarded to a student at West Side Area Career and Technology Center in Pringle.

Martin’s mother, Wendy Cadwalader, said this will be the fourth year for the motorcycle ride and festival. Each year has grown to include more bikers and more people attending the festival, she said.

“We had just under 200 bikes, not including passengers last year,” Cadwalader said.

The ride starts at 12:30 p.m. at the Luzerne County Fairgrounds, Lehman Township, and ends at Konefal’s Grove in Jackson Township. A fee is required, with registration beginning at 9:30 a.m.

There will be food and refreshments, with 3rd Degree and Strawberry Jam providing entertainment.

Cadwalader said the scholarship was founded shortly after her daughter’s death and is awarded to a graduating student who demonstrates a desire for community service.

Martin was the 2003 Luzerne County Fair Queen, an artist and volunteered for the Special Olympics, Cadwalader said.

A horse lover, Cadwalader said Martin dreamed of starting a horse-riding school for physically challenged children.

“She had big dreams to succeed in life and in the community to make it a better place,” Cadwalader said. “That’s why the scholarship fund was founded in her memory.”

Martin was a 2002 graduate of West Side Area Vocational-Technical School and was a contributing writer and artist for the Utopia magazine, a school publication that was funded through a Luzerne Foundation grant. She also contributed her artistic skills to the Miles of Mules project several years ago in which artists created durable works of art on statues of the animals who were integral to regional mining history.

Joseph Gacha Jr., 31, and Daniel Kukuchka, 25, were charged with killing Martin. Gacha was convicted of first-degree murder in September 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.

In April, a Luzerne County judge denied a request from Gacha to stop deducting fines and court costs from his inmate account. According to Gacha’s motion, he earns 42 cents per hour and works approximately six hours a week doing various prison jobs at the State Correctional Institution at Greensburg in Westmoreland County.

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‘We Can Make the World a Better Place’ Scholarship will go to deserving Tech student.

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