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Pat Carafano
Correspondent
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Standing by her heartfelt motto “nothing is ever too much to do for a child,” Mary Virginia Merrick founded the Christ Child Society in Washington, D.C. 126 years ago, starting a movement that would grow across this country with volunteers focusing on newborn babies.
The Christ Child Society is a national volunteer organization embracing members of all denominations, expressing their love of the Christ Child by service to God's children regardless of race, age or creed.
Merrick began the Christ Child Society with a gift of baby clothes, handmade by herself, to a mother in need and her baby. The layette from Merrick was the design for the Christ Child Society layette of today. Every year in the United States over ten thousand layettes are distributed as a result of this first simple act of charity. Currently there are 38 chapters across the nation.
In El Paso, 69 ladies - all of them age “55 and holding” - gear up every September and apply busy hands through June to the charitable volunteer work of creating layettes desperately needed by so many infants born here.
Boots Healy, a busy member since 1958, recalls how in the first year of the El Paso chapter ladies used to bring their own lunches and sewing machines to meetings in those early days.
“The people are super,” she said of the El Paso members who are now all over the city, having spread from the original group on the West side.
Destitute mothers top list
Healy described the unimaginable situations they discovered in an old hospital located behind the old Hotel Dieu Hospital - indigent girls in poverty were taking their babies home wrapped in newspapers.
“The minute I quit work, I joined,” said former president Molly Reed, who was hosting the January meeting at her eastside home. “I love children - and there’s such a need.”
As she spoke, 46 hands were busily hand-sewing, attaching ribbons and tags, and completing all the miniature tasks it takes to put together a layette. Some of the ladies also crochet, knit or make blankets to include in the layette.
A layette is a gift package including baby care items such as blankets, diapers, clothing, toiletry items and child care information. Handmade items still are a special piece in most of the society’s layettes. They have a monthly quota of 20 layettes.
These gift items are packed in a Christ Child Society bag and turned over to hospitals and other organizations upon request. Recipients include University Medical Center, Texas Tech University HSC, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Guadalupano Clinic and House of Hope. Contacts are with organizations rather than individuals to preserve confidentiality.
Preemie babies who have died receive Precious Angel burial gowns upon request.
For more information, call 591-7266 or 592-1855.
Comments or questions about this story? E-mail swsenior@elpasoinc.com
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