Parish hopes inaugural event will become staple of southwest Detroit neighborhood

Detroit — Playmate, mentor, teacher and friend: The role of grandparents is ever changing and ever vital.

Setting aside a day to focus on the important role grandparents play in the lives of young Catholics, Detroit’s oldest parish is trying to start one of its newest traditions: “Grandparents Day.”

On Sept. 10, Ste. Anne de Detroit Parish hosted its first-ever “Grandparents Day,” featuring a tour of the church, games and puzzles, and a petting zoo in the parish hall, where grandparents and their grandchildren had the chance to spend quality time together.

“St. Anne is the grandmother of Jesus, so this event is to honor grandparents and the multi-generational aspect of the faith,” said Danielle Center, program coordinator at St. Anne de Detroit. “Jesus is relevant to everyone at every stage of life.”

The day started with a tour of the historic church, which houses the remains of Fr. Gabriel Richard and some of the oldest stained-glass windows in the city.

After the tour, young ones and their elders had a chance to enjoy a petting zoo and take part in arts and crafts projects, emphasizing the need for children to spend quality time with their grandparents.

“So often faith and family are intertwined, and family is an expression of faith, that shared memory we have,” Center said. “That shared experience creates something special, something sacred. Events like this show we can all celebrate the faith as a family, making it richer.”



Parish staff aspire to turn the inaugural Grandparents Day into a mainstay on the parish calendar as a way to draw people in the community to the parish, named after Jesus’ grandmother, as an opportunity to celebrate the important ministry of being a grandparent.

“We hope more people will come back after starting events like this in the first year,” said Bailey Sisoy-Isgro, a parishioner at St. Anne de Detroit. “St. Anne has events going on, and we’re trying to build something here; we want this to grow.”

Part of the program includes community outreach to the local southwest Detroit neighborhood, where many generations live close together. The plan is to use Grandparents Day as a way to encourage people to walk in the doors of their neighborhood parish for what might be the first time.

“This is a great way to connect with the neighborhood community base, inviting them to get to know the parish through the events we do at St. Anne,” Sisoy-Isgro said. “We’re trying to get more people to find St. Anne through a religious and cultural way, and what’s more friendly than a petting zoo and painting station?”

Grandparents Day is part of a series of initiatives the parish is launching to encourage people to rediscover the historical roots of Catholicism in Michigan, while at the same time spreading word about St. Anne, patroness of Detroit, and the mother of Mary.

“You can’t talk about Detroit without talking about St. Anne,” said Sisoy-Isgro, who works with Detroit History Tours. “St. Anne has to fit into any story of Detroit. Fr. Gabriel Richard even penned the city motto. The more events we have like this, the more we build up the parish’s presence in the community, the more they realize who St. Anne was, what her mission was, how important the mission of being a good parent, grandparent is.”