Ray Sweet & Ray Lopez from The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Los Angeles

My guests will be the President of the Board of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Los Angeles, Ray Sweet and Camp Director, Ray Lopez, Circle V Ranch Camp, and Retreat Center.

Some history:

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in Paris, France in 1833 by a 20-year old student, Frederic Ozanam. Challenged by the poverty he saw on the streets, and by his contemporaries who believed the Church no longer demonstrated an active faith in works of charity, Frederic organized the first Conference of Charity to help the poor of all religions created by the industrial revolution, as well as create an avenue that assisted people to express their faith and grow spiritually through acts of charity. Frederic named his conferences after the great French Saint, Vincent de Paul, who was known for his heroic goodness to the poor.

Today, the Society is an international organization of volunteer Catholic women and men with more than 1,000,000 members in 142 countries, and a mission to seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived.

The Society's Council of Los Angeles is a volunteer-based non-profit with close to 2,000 members who help improve the quality of life for children, women & men throughout the year. They serve the poor and homeless of any religion for free.

We will be talking about the wonderful opportunities that the children have at Circle V Ranch Camp. The camp was closed for the past 2 years because of the Whittier wildfire in the Santa Ynez Mountains, in the Los Padres National Forest. They are happy to be reopening this summer!