Angelus News | August 2-9, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 27

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From left: Ray Lopez, camp director; Father Lawrence Seyer; Father Peter Banks, OFM Cap.; Nadine Melancon, camp committee co-chair; Viktor Rzeteljski, SVdPLA board member; Jackie Yanez, camp committee co-chair; David Garcia, SVdPLA executive director; Tony Yanez, camp committee co-chair; James Bibb Jr., SVdPLA board member; Marilyn Coyle, SVdPLA board member, and Paul Melancon, camp benefactor. CHRIS SARIEGO ‘Thank you Guardian Angels’ Campers return to Catholic Charities’ Circle V Ranch Camp two years after their dramatic escape from the Whittier Fire BY R.W. DELLINGER / ANGELUS While the beginnings of the Whittier Fire began racing up the dry hillsides above Santa Barbara County’s Lake Cachuma toward the Circle V Ranch Camp and Retreat Center on July 8, 2017, summer camp was in full swing. Sitting a few miles from the lake in a live oak forest, the camp with mostly boys and girls from disadvantaged urban families has been run and operated by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Los Angeles Council, since 1945 at different sites. By the time the fire was fully contained three months later, 18,430 acres were burned, mostly on national forest lands suffering from a yearslong drought. Sixteen homes were destroyed. Nine people suffered nonfatal injuries. But those injuries could have led to many fatalities, with only 20-some children and staff from the camp making it all the way down a narrow, rutted road to state Route 154. The rest, 58 children and 24 staff members, “sheltered in place” in the camp’s dining lodge until forest service workers 16 • ANGELUS • August 2-9, 2019
and firemen broke through the smoke and flames to rescue them. Looking back, the counselors and campers there that day consider themselves very lucky that the camp was not completely burned to the ground. In fact, the fire went around it for the most part. But in the upper part of the camp, both the arts and crafts building and the health center were destroyed. A water treatment plant about a quarter-mile away was also severely damaged. Still, the post-fire plan was to get the camp up and running for last summer. But in January, a mudslide and debris flow came through part of the camp, setting everything back. So the first campers in two years arrived earlier this month on Friday, July 12. The camp formally reopened three days later with a special Mass in the camp’s outdoor chapel celebrated by Father Peter Banks, vocation director for the Western American Province of Franciscan Capuchins, and Father Lawrence Seyer, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Montecito. Afterward, Seyer gave a special blessing with holy water for the reopened camp. “You guys are the first group here after the fire,” he pointed out. “So we ask for Jesus to be here and help us with this renewing of our camp. May counselors teach their students how to join the discovery of human wisdom with the truth of the Gospel, so they may be able to keep the true faith and the love in their lives. “We also ask the Lord that the campus will find in its teachers and counselors the image of Christ. So that with both human and divine learning, they may be true and be able to redeem one another in Christ. Amen.” Later, a metal plaque fixed to the side of a boulder titled “THANK YOU GUARDIAN ANGELS” was dedicated to the first responders who rescued the campers and staff. In gold letters, it thanked the U.S. Forest Service, Santa Barbara County Fire Department, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue, as well as volunteers and staff. Below it reads: “In Gratitude for Your Extraordinary Service and Efforts During the July 8, 2017 Whittier Wildfire at St. Vincent de Paul Circle V Ranch Camp.” Alexis Paniagua, who has worked at Circle V since the summer of 2012, prays with campers and staff during Mass in the camp’s outdoor chapel. Alexis Paniagua, 25, started working at Circle V in the summer of 2012 as a counselor who trained older campers affectionately known as CILTs (Counselors in Leadership Training) to become counselors themselves. He believes the plaque is a fitting tribute to the first responders who helped keep counselors like him calm, which is what he tried to do driving a car full of young girl campers down a windy access road to Route 154 and safety. He recalls it was just a regular day when he and some other staffers suddenly smelled smoke. When they could see flames, it was time to get out of there. He and a counselor loaded Paniagua’s Kia with seven- and eightyear-old girls, and slowly started down the access road in a caravan of other camp residents and staff members. “There was fire all around, and I was really afraid and terrified,” Paniagua recalled. “We tried everything to distract them, singing lively camp songs, playing music and playing games, including one where we had the campers close their eyes.” The counselors’ efforts were successful, until the flames came so close that the children could see branches falling. The caravan finally made it out to Route 154 and then headed to nearby Old Mission Santa Inez in Solvang, the camps designated evacuation spot for emergencies, before making making phone calls to parents. Paniagua, who just started a “diversion” job with Los Angeles County to keep juveniles out of detention, calls Circle V his “second home.” He admitted he was R.W. DELLINGER disappointed when the camp didn’t open last summer. “But I’m super excited to be able to come back now and be able to play with the kids and interact with them,” he said, grinning. “I always look forward to coming back every year.” So does Ray Lopez. The camp’s director said that mudflow damage to Circle V’s boys’ side of the camp hampered his hopes of reopening the camp last summer. He also wanted to make it even better than ever when it did open, especially making the dining lodge even more fireproof. In addition to new fire retardant dark brown paint, the long, single-story building now has rolled-up aluminum-like foil on every window, which can withstand up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the same material used by firefighters to protect themselves. “We feel good about this building being our shelter-in-place zone,” he added, turning to glance at the dining August 2-9, 2019 • ANGELUS • 17
Page 1 and 2: ANGELUS August 2-9, 2019 Vol. 4 No.
Page 3 and 4: ON THE COVER A nationwide trend pus
Page 5 and 6: NEW WORLD OF FAITH BY ARCHBISHOP JO
Page 7 and 8: NATION Abortion by cable and on dem
Page 9 and 10: LA Catholic Events Items for LA Cat
Page 11 and 12: IN EXILE BY FATHER RONALD ROLHEISER
Page 13 and 14: Statues of Confederate generals bro
Page 15 and 16: NANCY WIECHEC/CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Page 17: ing evidence of a second miracle fo
Page 21 and 22: August 2-9, 2019 • ANGELUS • 19
Page 23 and 24: San Francisco to study English led
Page 25 and 26: there is a constant Catholic presen
Page 27 and 28: is believing that “prayer flows f
Page 29 and 30: tainment. As some psychiatrist once
Page 31 and 32: no objective reality or truth, and
Page 34 and 35: THE CRUX BY HEATHER KING Crystal cl

Angelus News | August 2-9, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 27

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