Inspired by Mary Virginia Merrick’s work with poor children in Washington, D.C., a group of Detroit woman, led by Mary Catherine Brady, founded the local chapter in 1912.
They began, as Merrick had, by making layettes for poor expectant mothers, but added additional services over the years, including the establishment of Christ Child House on the city’s west side.
Now, there are more than 40 chapters nationwide, all of which continue to have the layette program, but with other programs that serve the specific needs of their various communities.
“The Detroit chapter is the only one with a residential treatment facility,” Shondell Patterson, president of the local chapter, said about Christ Child House.
Originally established to help families in crisis, the 31-bed building on Joy Road now serves boys 5 to 17 — most of them permanent wards of the state — who have been abused, neglected or abandoned.
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“Right now, we are right serving the most troubled of the troubled, providing a safe haven and home-like environment until they are mentally healthy enough to move on,” said Patterson, a member of National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish, Royal Oak.
The boys, who stay at Christ Child House typically about six months, eventually are adopted, go into ordinary foster home programs, or reach 18 and are emancipated as adults.
“We try to provide them a better life as well as cultural experiences,” she said.
While Christ Child House has a paid professional staff, the society is seeking “to revitalize Mary Virginia Merrick’s concept of direct service — to actually work directly with children,” said Maureen Wesley, a past president of the Detroit chapter and the society’s national president-elect.
Patterson said her Detroit chapter is doing that through the literacy program it started at the Whitmer Human Resource Center in Pontiac.
“We bring in volunteers to break the chain of poverty by giving them the gift of reading,” she said.
Although Patterson belongs to Shrine and Wesley to St. Thomas More Parish in Troy, Patterson said most of the Detroit chapter’s members come from either Holy Name Parish, Birmingham, or St. Hugo of the Hills Parish, Bloomfield Hills.
One of her goals as president is to see more women become involved from throughout the archdiocese.
Membership dues are $50 for a new member’s provisional year, then $80 a year to continue as an active member.
Patterson said members become enthusiastic about volunteering in the society’s activities.
“We find the more engaged they are, the more engaged they become,” she said.
Besides being the host chapter for the National Christ Child Society’s convention this September, the Detroit chapter has a number of events planned to mark its centennial, culminating with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Allen Vigneron at Christ Child House on Dec. 12.
