Allan Appel Photo
Nineteenth Century Mary Wade, aka Marian Lemley, met Miss Puerto Rico de New Haven 2009, Kelly Marie Cruz, as all Fair Haven strutted its diverse and transgenerational stuff to celebrate the spirit of the community.
They were part of a record turnout of participants and viewers 500 strong who festively promenaded past the Mary Wade Home in Fair Haven, across Pine, down Atwater, across Grand, and then home along Clinton under a splendid sun Friday afternoon in the second annual community parade.
Mary Wade Chief Executive Officer David Hunter said the parade was to honor seniors, mark Memorial Day, albeit belatedly, and bring people together. “A parade is a fun way to unify a community,” he said.
Mary Wade is a prize-winning member of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Friday’s event was part of a national celebration of the role not-for-profit nursing homes play in their community.
Mary Wade’s role is increasingly prominent.
Local businesses, non-profits, and school groups such as the chorus from the Fair Haven K‑8 Eagles marched the route Friday, pausing before rows of the older folks sitting in the sunlight, some squinting beneath the visors of their pulled down caps, some in wheelchairs, some with walkers at the ready.
After the Eagles (pictured) sang appropriately enough “Lean on Me,” the old folks and their caregivers acknowledged with applause and smiles.
“It gets us all in the right mood,” said Anne MacCatherine, referring to the peppy young people high-stepping by. “Even an old grouch like me.”
Which she wasn’t.
The 86-year old Hamden native has been living at Mary Wade for two years now. She’s one of 110 residents in the nursing and assisted living complex that is increasingly part of the life of its Fair Haven neighborhood.
With several nearby houses owned by Mary Wade for employees to reside in and a 34-bed addition whose steel superstructure is rising in the background and scheduled to open in the fall, Mary Wade’s David Hunter referred to the home, appropriately, as an expanding health campus.
On Friday, the home and the community it anchors exemplified that. Or, as MacCatherine put it, “The day was a time for everyone to be happy. You can’t help but be.”
Click here for a story on the previous edition of the parade.
Fair Haven District Manager Lt. Luiz Casanova (marching with Assistant Chief Stephanie Redding) was surprised with the parade’s first annual outstanding leadership award. He hit the theme of the day in the bulls eye when he said, “I don’t do it alone. I accept this on behalf of you.”
Other participants included the rousing brass and drums of the Wilbur Cross High School Marching Governors band, and the Royals, the St. Francis/St. Rose of Lima charming cheerleading troop.
They both got the seniors’ blood flowing. The Fair Haven Community Health Clinic marched too, just in case it was flowing too much.
Inesta Belardo (center) of soon-to-open Start Community Bank and her colleagues attended too, because “we’re about community.” Belardo will be managing the Fair Haven branch at 258 Grand Ave. and its sister branch on Whalley at Sherman are scheduled to open as early as the end of July. Lawrence Jeune (on the right) will manage the Whalley branch.
After the circumambulation, there were speeches, ices, cookies, and 200 bananas, presided over by city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts.
And Mary Wade got to eat her first McDonald’s burger, one of (count ‘em) 500, provided at discount by the company for the event.
It was the first time she had munched a McDonalds since she founded the home for husbandless young women just after the Civil War. “Mary Wade didn’t know what she was missing,” Lemley said between bites.
The parade was coordinated by Mary Wade’s Rufina Durazzo, and among other food and philanthropic contributors to the event were Grand Apizza, Janell’s, Abate, New Haven Partitions, Greater New Haven Rotary Club, and the Cupcake Truck.