Sister Larraine Lauter, an Ursuline nun with deep ties to Owensboro, has been immersed in matters of justice, environmental protection, art, and the contemplative life for decades. Lauter will be the featured speaker at Thursday’s Rooster Booster.
The event, sponsored this month by Brescia University, will be held at 7:30 a.m. on the Kentucky Legend Pier at the Owensboro Convention Center.
“We are delighted to welcome Sister Larraine to our September Rooster Booster,” said Candance Castlen Brake, Chamber President and CEO. “With Brescia as our sponsor it is only fitting to celebrate the wide influence that Brescia’s founders, the Ursuline community, has had in our world. The impact of Brescia and the Ursuline sisters on Greater Owensboro can be seen in nearly every walk of life of here.”
In more than 40 years of ministry — whether as art and music teacher, pastoral ministry in service to Catholic communities, choir director, ministry with immigrants, or nonprofit leadership — Lauter has always sought to be Sister more in spirit than by title.
Her first 10 years of ministry were focused on education, teaching art and music at the Cathedral School in Owensboro, then art and theology at Trinity High School in Whitesville. From there, she followed a call to pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Owensboro, serving as pastoral associate, music director and liturgist for the Catholic communities of St. Columba (Lewisport) and Precious Blood (Owensboro).
In 2002, Lauter started Migrant Immigrant Shelter and Support, offering housing and support to migrant farm workers in Owensboro. After moving to Louisville in 2007, she led Hispanic ministry at St. Bartholomew’s and the Church of the Epiphany, where she also served as Minister for Social Responsibility until leaving in 2011 to lead Water With Blessings.
In 2008, together with friends Arnold LeMay and Jim Burris, she began to comprehend the immeasurable impact of clean water for the health of children and their communities. Their first Water Woman 2008 project to equip Honduran mothers with water filters to share with the community yielded unanticipated outcomes and insight. It was eventually incorporated as Water With Blessings (2011), which at present numbers around 115,000+ Water Women in 48 countries.
Rooster Booster is a monthly meeting hosted by Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce where people are able to grow their businesses and careers, meet new people and organizations.
