The Christ Child Society of South Bend

Founded August 1947 — an all-volunteer chapter, still clothing the county's children

Founding: The Christ Child Society of South Bend was founded in August 1947 by Rosaleen "Puddy" Crowley, who invited a circle of some fifteen friends to serve poor children in their community, following her own mother's example. The national society had been founded in 1887 in Washington, D.C., by Mary Virginia Merrick. The South Bend chapter's first layette went to a child born on Christmas Day 1947, and its enduring work settled into the form it keeps today: brand-new winter clothing — coats, shoes and clothes — for economically disadvantaged children from newborn through age fourteen, given without consideration of religion or background, by an organization run entirely by volunteers.

Course: The chapter marked seventy years in 2017 with an exhibit at the History Museum, reporting more than 220,000 children served by then — its own count — and seventy-five years in 2022, by which count more than a quarter of a million children had been served and membership stood near 380. In 2020 it moved its distribution center from the old St. Patrick School downtown to a larger space at 2366 Miracle Lane in the Town and Country Shopping Center — Mishawaka ground, printed at the boundary; the chapter remains South Bend's, serving St. Joseph County, and one of only two Christ Child chapters in Indiana. Its membership in recent years has run near 400, all volunteers; the chapter receives no funding from the national society.

Sources:

1. Today's Catholic, 21 June 2017 — the seventieth anniversary: the 1947 founding by Rosaleen Crowley and her fifteen friends; 220,000 children served; the national society's 1887 founding by Mary Virginia Merrick.
2. Today's Catholic, 22 March 2022 — the seventy-fifth anniversary: the founding member Barbara Dillon honored; the first recipient born Christmas Day 1947; more than a quarter of a million children in seventy-five years; membership near 380.
3. Today's Catholic, 15 July 2020 — the move to 2366 Miracle Lane, Mishawaka; membership near 400; the all-volunteer structure.
4. Christ Child Society of South Bend (christchildsb.org), mission pages — new winter clothing, newborn through fourteen, since 1947.