2008 Woodie Awards
URI sophomore killed, one injured, after car strikes them
Friend recalls Molly Offer as 'happy-go-lucky' student
Chloe Thompson
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: News
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Narragansett Police arrived at 753 Boston Neck Road at 1:22 a.m. and emergency workers transported Offer to South County Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Offer's friend, Holly Maganzini, 20, was initially taken to South County Hospital before being transferred to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence where she remained yesterday with non-life threatening injuries to both her legs.
The two students were reportedly walking from a party to get something out of their car when Gayle Cherenzia, 53, of Westerly, struck them while traveling south with her aluminum-colored 2004 Toyota, according to police reports. Cherenzia has not been charged by police.
Narragansett Police Chief Joseph Little said yesterday police had not determined whether substances such as alcohol were a factor in the incident and the investigation is still pending.
Though many of Offer's friends were too devastated by the unexpected loss to comment, URI junior Jason Coppa, who first met Offer at his house a few months ago, recalled the Woodcliff Lake, N.J. resident as an eternal optimist.
"She was the definition of happy-go-lucky," he said. "Always smiling, always laughing." Offer, an art major concentrating in painting and digital design, was actively involved with the URI Catholic Center and Christ the King Parish where she was a Eucharistic minister during Saturday night Mass. Her strong religious devotion extended back to her years at Immaculate Heart Academy.
The Pastoral Associate at Our Lady Mother of the Church, Margaret Sanzo, remembered her former parishioner as an active and dynamic member of her school.
"She was an all around incredible human being," she said. "She was a bundle of energy with a huge smile and always, always optimistic."
Sanzo said she affectionately referred to Offer, whom she knew since her youth, as her "favorite little leprechaun," and said even though the woman was small in stature she was big in ambition.