Tonight, we've shown you how kindness can be recycling, a hot meal, or how it can show up as a pair of shoes at just the right moment, and sometimes it comes with wings.

In Plaza Midwood, there's a little magic in the air once a month, a group calling themselves "The Trash Fairies" put on tutus, wings, and bright colors, not for a performance, but to make something disappear.

"Carolina Impact's" Chris Clark has more.

("Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Tchaikovsky) - [Chris] They appear just after sunrise on the first Saturday of the month, a brightly colored species moving quietly through Plaza Midwood.

- They've been coming for years.

We've been helping them for years.

- [Chris] Long enough, locals say, to become a neighborhood legend.

- They're really elusive.

- [Chris] Rarely seen, almost never caught in the act.

- Muscular, strong, ready to clean up after you.

- [Chris] All that remains, maybe a feather, scrap of tulle and a suspicious dusting of glitter.

- They just leave the place beautiful afterwards.

- [Chris] Every neighborhood has its legends.

Around here, they're called "Trash Fairies."

- Everybody's like, "The what, what are you talking about?"

("Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Tchaikovsky) - [Chris] Despite their plumage, this is not ceremonial, it's civic maintenance.

For over a decade, Plaza Midwood business owners have been cleaning up their backyard and the backyards of their neighbors.

- When we started, there was a lot of trash.

We actually, you know, received complaints about trash in the neighborhood and sort of wanted to do something to help with that.

- [Chris] But in its earliest form, the ritual lacked spectacle.

- We would joke around about different ways to make it fun and more engaging.

Anything from like a trash tournament, like a fishing tournament.

- [Chris] Under pressure, adaptation was inevitable.

Faced with speeding traffic, bright defensive plumage was developed.

- Generally, people wear like some sort of a neon vest or something.

We feel like we are, like, magical fairies that are just doing this work.

Michelle Castelloe just jumped right on it and ordered tutus.

- [Chris] It was in that moment, the Trash Fairies took form.

- To be honest, I thought it was kind of in name only.

I thought, I thought the tutus was for like the board of director type of thing.

- It just ties into kind of the spirit of the neighborhood.

You know, it's been a wild bohemian neighborhood for so long.

(lively music) - [Chris] Armed with grabbers, gloves, and bags, they move in pairs, surveying the terrain.

- I feel like I'm gonna find some magic trash.

- [Chris] What they find ranges from the mundane- - Diapers, food bags.

- Somebody was here from NYC, I guess.

- [Chris] To objects that defy explanation.

- That's like a $3,000 piece of, oops.

- A lot of times we'll end up finding things that you really don't know what it is.

Looks like part of a bow and arrow or... (volunteer laughing) an antenna or a walking stick.

That might be, look like a medical device.

- [Chris] Some artifacts refuse removal, slowly fusing with the pavement.

- Flattened, water-soaked, eroded, they now become part of the sidewalk, cardboard or paper products.

Just like, err, trying to get it to come up a little bit so you can grab a lip.

- [Chris] Others suggest a story interrupted.

- You'll come across little scenes, you know, like a stuffed animal with a couple of small liquor bottles next to it.

- [Chris] Some rituals repeat with precision.

- There's a specific spot in the neighborhood where we inevitably find a lot of tequila bottles.

Oh, look at that, man.

Full-size tequila bottles.

Like, who is drinking all this tequila?

- [Chris] Fragments of impact mark this pavement.

- Car parts.

There's always, you know, just from wrecks or whatever, I guess, like shrapnel.

There's like fenders and hub caps.

Somebody didn't use all their ketchup.

- [Chris] Remnants of appetite abandoned mid-meal.

- Oh my God, I can smell that.

Whoa!

- Yeah, no, it's really bad.

- Half-eaten slice of pizza or a, you know, a plastic bag that looks like something was spilled on it that might be toxic.

- I have a really bad gag reflex, so I'm just going to cover that up.

Look at that, see that fabulous fold?

- [Chris] And occasionally they run across something fragile.

- You're walking around, picking up trash, and you see like a little toddler shoe, you know, just must have fallen off a kid or whatever while being walked in the stroller.

- [Chris] The work might be heavy, but the mood is not.

- [Clifton] No talking trash.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

- I think these types of experiences attract a certain kind of person who's just gonna look for opportunities to have fun.

- [Clifton] I'm gonna really feel silly if this thing isn't really on and I'm just talking to myself like this.

- [Chris] Each object adding weight.

- Every person just about fills the bag, either, you know, halfway or all the way.

Sometimes end up bag number two.

- [Chris] Each bag filled draws the merchants out from behind their counters and back into the streets they call their own.

- Getting the small business owners connecting with each other, connecting with the residents in the area and the Trash Fairies and our monthly cleanup has been a way to do that.

- [Chris] They clear the debris without letting it harden them.

- Everyone's at different stages in their life.

I try to have grace and compassion and just, I have no idea what they're going through.

- [Chris] By mid-morning, the work is all finished.

The bags are tied, the street breathes easier.

They drift back toward The Common Market, grabbers collected, gloves discarded, promising to return.

Until next month, they fade quietly back into the neighborhood that's summoned them.

- There is a certain feeling of mindfulness or contribution or even, even kind of a spiritual part of just, just walking, getting exercise, cleaning up.

You lose yourself in it.

- [Chris] And when the first Saturday comes again, the fairies will return.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Chris Clark.