Know Your Neighbors: Day Sanchez

You may know Dayane “Day” Sanchez, 48, as the volunteer coordinator of Love Wins Food Pantry. But what you may not know is that Day, who uses she/her pronouns, has been a foster mom to pets since 2015. She shares her home with a dog and two cats, both of whom were fosters before she adopted them, as well as the occasional litter of foster kittens.

Before I could enter Day’s apartment, I had to offer her dog, Maui, a handful of treats. She explained that before she adopted him, he had bit someone and been surrendered to an animal shelter as a result. But with a few precautions, Day assured me, he would welcome my company. 

And she was right. After he accepted my offering, Maui sat in on the interview, sticking his nose into Day’s lap and eventually licking the bag of treats clean.

Day, right, with her mother, left, on the bank of the Hudson River.

Carly: You’ve been in Jackson Heights for a long time. How has it changed over the years?

Day: My family is from Colombia. I was born and raised here, though. In the ‘80s, Roosevelt [Avenue] didn’t look like it looks now. Pretty much all those places were Colombian clubs. Just imagine the disco and the drugs and the outfits, all pimped out. You remember that scene in Scarface when they’re in the club? That’s the best way I could describe it to you.

But that all changed over the years because of the War on Drugs. They started cracking down on businesses because a lot of those businesses were money laundering or who knows what. All the Colombians started to move to Northern Boulevard. That’s why you see some Colombian restaurants around there, some bakeries. Before Colombians were here, this was an area full of Cubans. 

Carly: Maui wants to show me his treats. He’s like, “Why is it empty?”

Day: [to Maui] It’s finished, papa. It’s done. Oh look, you’re right, there was one more. Sorry.

Day’s dog, Maui, begging for treats.

Little by little, there became a lot of Mexicans around here. After that, there was Ecuadorians, and now Peruvians. When I went to school, everybody - the teachers, the students - were all Irish. It was very Irish around here. Little by little, that changed.

Here in this building, in the early ‘90s, we had a lot of gay couples living here. We had Latinos and some Irish white people. That also has changed. We started to have Russian families come. 

We’ve always had sex workers here. That’s never changed.

Carly: When did you start working with the food pantry?

Day: I started with them in September of 2020. I found out because of Jackson Heights Community Fridge. I went there knowing nobody. I didn’t know anybody, but I didn’t feel out of place. I fit in, whether I was straight or not. It felt welcoming. It was warm to the heart. But a lot of people have left.

Ruth does an amazing job talking to the people. I want people to feel like they should come back, you know? I would like for us to be more communicative. Sometimes you get so distracted that you don’t even get to talk to the people. 

Day with her cat, Mr. Miracle.

Carly: Can you tell me more about the fostering animals that you’ve done?

Day: I started in 2015 because we wanted to adopt. Maui was my first foster, and he never left. He’s my best friend.

[to Maui] Right, Maui? It’s already, what, six years, papa.

I continued fostering because I realized how much of a help it is. They come to you all fucked up, whether it be emotionally or physically, and you get them ready. You love them. You prepare them for that forever home. 

Carly: How has COVID-19 affected you and your family?

Day: You see how close I live to Elmhurst Hospital? The first two months, I’m hearing fucking sirens all the time. There would be helicopters just going around the neighborhood because Jackson Heights was the epicenter. I would go to work and it was like a ghost town. It was scary to see Jackson Heights so dead. 

My cousin got sick. He didn’t get anyone sick because he went to his boyfriend’s house and did his quarantine there. But for a second, we thought we all were sick because we live together. 

[My ex-boyfriend] ended up getting COVID really bad. He was actually in a coma. On March 23rd, he went to the hospital, and he was in a coma until May. He lost about 80 pounds. We thought we were gonna lose him at one point. And even after he was up, he had to learn to walk again. He couldn’t even move his leg. 

Now he’s better, but still it’s a long recovery. He’s not a smoker. He’s 43 years old, young and healthy. It got him and knocked him out.

Day, right, on vacation in Mexico.

Carly: You guys are still friends?

Day: Yeah, we keep in touch. I broke up with him, that’s why.

Carly: [laughs]

Day: He was not a bad boyfriend, but I had my daughter and I felt like I was split in half. I had one world with him and one world with my daughter. I couldn’t bring those two things together. 

Check this out, Carly - he ended up with a girl who had two daughters right after me. And then he goes to fucking Disneyworld with them! 

At first - ooh, I was livid. But then I was like, “That’s what he learned from me.” He realized what he lost with me. And I was like, “Sucks for you.” [laughs]

With love always, Carly