'Fairy Grandparents' bring magic to Weld Street, Marketview amid tough challenges

Pink and blue petals decorate a whiteboard greeting a group of elders in the community as they gather in a big room in the YMCA on Lewis Steet: "Welcome Fairy Grandparents."

There is magic behind this group. The kind that transcends the usual pixie dust, glitter and wizard wands you would normally think of.

For the Fairy Grandparents, their magic lies within their willingness and determination to give back to their Rochester neighborhoods, a little glimmer of positivity in a community that can struggle. This group uses their voices and actions in an attempt to restore what has been lost from decades of structural inequalities.

They are a group of more than 30 elderly community members, who “adopt” families within the surrounding neighborhoods and help get them the resources they may not be able to afford or have access to.

Nancy Maciuska has been running the Fairy Grandparents program at the Y for four and a half years. She says they provide families with things like clothing, school books and bikes.

The Lewis Street YMCA used to be a childhood center, but after the pandemic it reopened into a neighborhood center.

"I think it's really important in this neighborhood that's really lacking that kind of community hub," said Jonathan Coyle, the before and after school program director at the Y. "We opened the building up for neighborhood associations and community organizations to come in and have their meetings, but also residents."

Coyle said that the work groups like the Fairy Grandparents have done with children in the neighborhood have helped create a stronger intergenerational community.

During the holidays the group holds a Santa’s Workshop where kids can come and pick out presents to give to their friends or family. Maciuska says the Rochester Police Department does a lot of work with the group and helps with their community events.

It was a smaller group on a Friday afternoon in January. Only about 12 or so members, though more trickled in as the meeting went on. The week's meeting was a celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The first thing on the agenda was a guest speaker, Pastor Sexton.

One of the areas the Fairy Grandparents focus their magic on is Weld Street — a three-block stretch in the Marketview Heights neighborhood that shares many things in common with most residential streets in Rochester. It is a street consisting of generations of memories and beauty, but also crime and economic hardship.

When Weld Street is mentioned in the news, it is usually because something bad happened there, but for the Fairy Grandparents, this little street represents so much more. To them, these three blocks are reminiscent of what the street once was and what it can be again, full of community and hope.

Journalists from the Democrat & Chronicle have spent many months speaking with the community on and around Weld Street to try to understand what challenges any "single street in Rochester."

As the grandparents ate their lunches awaiting Pastor Sexton’s arrival, Jim Affronti, 68, began sharing some of his memories and thoughts about Weld Street.

Affronti says he spent most of his childhood on Weld running around with his friends. He remembers how he and his eight siblings used to pick fruit from the trees and bushes in the alley for his family.

Most of those trees and bushes are gone now, but his family and friends living there remain. The majority of the people on Weld Street and the surrounding areas have been there for generations, Affronti said. “I’ve seen lots of changes on Weld, from good to bad to good,” he said.

Now, he believes the vacant lots and homes on the street are one of the biggest problems that need to be addressed. “They’re going to put a project in the inner loop, but I’m against that because I think they should repair our neighborhood first,” Affronti said.

Many of the Fairy Grandparents agreed that Weld Street has seen its share of drugs, crime and violence, but emphasized that those things do not define the people living there.

As one woman put it, they are just people trying to live in a world that wasn’t built for them, as a product of the housing discrimination and poverty that generations of families on that street were forced into. For many, she said, drugs and crime can be a means of survival.

“It's not all about violence,” Maciuska said. “To be honest with you, there's a lot of good things that are overlooked in this neighborhood and people don't realize.”

Within that room, full of Fairy Grandparents greeting Pastor Sexton as he walked in, were her words in action, tangible proof of the magic within this neighborhood.

Pastor Sexton took his spot in the middle of the room. He began by asking, “Do you mind if I open with a song?”

The group leaned in.

— Madison Scott is a journalist with the Democrat and Chronicle who edited our Weld Street Project and also did reporting for it. She has an interest in how the system helps or doesn't help families with missing loved ones. She can be reached at MDScott@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: 'Fairy Grandparents' bring magic to Weld Street amid tough challenges