From the Christ Child

FEW PEOPLE KNOW the name Mary Virginia Merrick today, but she’s been making the world a better place for more than 100 years—since the Christmas of 1884.

Mary was born in 1866 to a prominent Washington, D.C., family. The city’s population had swelled after the Civil War. Many of the newcomers, including injured veterans, freed slaves, immigrants and orphaned children, lived in poverty. Children slept barefoot in doorways. Homeless people lived in alleys and courts, without sanitation. The bureau of health took steps to