Three New Haven Guardian Angels were surprise visitors at the Ward 12 Easter Egg Hunt. The debonair Bunny was not upstaged, the kids collected a ton of chocolate, and the Angels even got in a little recruiting.
The Angels — who use noms d’ange, they claimed, to deter retaliation — were not expected by George Page and Tina Jandrzewski, of the 12th Ward Democratic Committee. They organized Saturday morning’s event, now in its third year.
“Still it’s fine to have them,” said Page, one of the committee co-chairs. He’s also active in the Quinnipiac Meadows Management team, which asked the Angels to begin patrols last summer.
“We saw that they were involved in the Whalley Avenue and Edgewood areas,” Page said, after laying out a field of foil-wrapped eggs that glistened invitingly for the 3‑to-10 year-olds on the grass behind the Ross/Woodward School.
“We were having some problems here, and I personally think the Angels have made a real difference.”
Sausage, who’s the brother of Snuff, said that he and his colleagues had come to the event “to make sure that no one bothers the kids. To make sure they don’t wander off toward the road. Things like that.”
They were also there in part to recruit. Currently, claimed Sausage, there are about 25 Angels working the Greater New Haven area. They patrol at night, in deliberately unpredictable patterns, Snuff said, carrying cell phones, radios to stay in touch with each other, and handcuffs in case of citizen arrests. But, no, never any weapons.
“We patrol in this area, around the school,” said Snuff, “over on Grand Avenue, in other parts of Fair Haven as well.” Snuff grew up on Quinnipiac Avenue around Ferry Street. Before he moved from the area, he was active in founding a local block watch.
His Angel work is different from block watching, he said. The Angels, who patrol in groups of three to five, do more than report suspicious activity. “We actively go up to kids and try to engage them.”
Everyone at the hunt seemed to appreciate the Angels’ presence in the community and wanted to be photographed with them, almost as much as with the tall, shy, Bunny, aka Christine Jandrzewski.
Christine Goodwin said she and her young daughters, Alani and Amara, are grateful to have the Angels around. When she moved into her house on Smith Avenue four years ago, she said, she and her girls were upstairs, heard a noise downstairs, and realized they were being robbed. The robber fled when she descended.
“The cops said we were very lucky.”
According to neighborhood Alderman Gerald Antunes, it was another rash of robberies from sheds, garages, and homes last summer that sparked the management team’s interest in bringing in the Angels.
In the case of Quinnipiac Meadows, they have the blessing of not only the team and the alderman, but also of Lt. Jeff Hoffman, the district manager. Now they also have the blessing of the Easter Bunny as well.
What’s Needed: More Programs for Kids
Antunes, a former police officer, Goodwin, Page, and the Angels all said that while the robberies have gone down, another problem has emerged: Groups of kids without sufficient programs to go to, who loiter on the streets, some smoking dope.
Taxi said that a lot of the Angels’ work is to go up to kids and see if they can involve them in youth programs.
“The problem,” said Antunes, “is that we don’t have enough after-school programs for the kids to go to.” He bemoaned, for example, that the renovated Ross/Woodward School in his view is not sufficiently utilized.
“The kids should be able to use the computer labs and gym much more after class,” Antunes said.
He also that while he is grateful for the new school and the spacious grounds, on which the kids hunted for eggs and presents this morning, “where is the outdoor basketball court that was promised!” That was never built.
Nor was Antunes happy about the grassy field that stretched a soccer field’s distance between the school and Middletown Avenue without any visible goals, markings or layouts for any sport, or bleachers. “There used to be two baseball fields here back generations ago,” he recalled.
Still the field was the perfect place for an awesome Easter Egg hunt, which was now going at full tilt. Antunes said he was also grateful for the Angels. “I just wish they could patrol more.”
A New Angel Is Born
As his son Zachary, 6, was Easter egg-hunting away, Pat Criscio began to talk with the Angels. Criscio is amason and tile-setter and a single dad.
“I had no idea I’d run into Snuff,” he said. It turned out Snuff and Criscio had gone to Fair Haven Middle School together. They had not seen each other in more than 20 years. “I’ve always admired the Angels,” said Criscio, “and it’s a great way to be a model for your kid.”
Sausage says that in addition to the Greater New Haven Angels’ two dozen members, another group has just formed in South Norwalk, which has five members. Yet another is in early formation in Hartford. All told, he said, there are allegedly 188 chapters worldwide.
Criscio and Snuff exchanged numbers. It appeared that the New Haven Guardian Angels had a new recruit on board.
In the meantime, the new recruit’s son, as well as a dozen other kids, had about three pounds of candy each to sort through later that afternoon.