Leonor Villares, wife of a Brazilian industrialist, gave a house as an Moral Re-Armament centre in São Paulo. She was instrumental in finding the Sitio through offering to take some of the port workers and Elsa Vogel and driving around Petrópolis with an estate agent. They saw the Sitio which belonged to two German brothers. One had emigrated to Australia at that time and the other was still in Brazil. The team dismissed the Sitio as a possibility because of lack of funds.
Some of the Brazilian team including the Vogels and a few other overseas guests were briefly staying at a rented place outside Petrópolis for a short period. After a time of quiet with everyone, someone from Britain said that he/she felt that the team needed to think big as Brazil could give a lot to the world. A lady called Ruth Lamond gave a valuable brooch as the opening gift towards buying the Sitio. The port workers felt that they should raise the money for the first installment and have a 'churasco' (barbeque) at the Sitio (the one German brother was asked if the Sitio could be rented for two days. Someone offered his crop of oranges, another offered the salad. The Mayor of Petrópolis was approached by the portworker's wives to donate a cow for the meat, which he did after hearing their convictions and how their marriages had been remade etc.
After the chirasco with several hundred people at the Sitio, Men of Brazil was shown and a hat was passed around for donations. One of the ladies, Lucy Muniz took off her real pearl necklace, a gift from her husband on their engagement, and put it into the hat. The German brother was approached to reduce the price. Leonor Villares and Elsa de Araujo approached two banks in São Paulo for donations. Within 6 months the money was raised to purchase Sitio São Luiz.
