Sister Larraine Lauter honored for her role in Water With Blessings

Ursuline Sister Larraine Lauter was recognized in May 2021 for the work she does with Water With Blessings, earning a Louisville high school’s prestigious award.

Sister Larraine received the 2021 Trinity Peace Medal, which has been given by Trinity High School for 51 years to someone recognized for their efforts that promote peacemaking, justice building, and service to others. The award was created by Klaus Mittelsten, who at the time was chair of Trinity’s Foreign Language Department, along with then-Trinity principal Rev. Thomas Duerr. Sister Larraine’s brother, Ron, is a graduate of the all-male Catholic school.

After joining the Ursuline Sisters in 1979, Sister Larraine served as a teacher, artist and musician for many years and then spent 12 years in parish ministry. For the past 19 years she has served in various social justice ministries, including the last 10 years as executive director of Water With Blessings, which provides water filters and training to “Water Women” in impoverished countries.

She co-founded the ministry with Arnold LeMay and Jim Burris after they determined that successfully providing clean drinking water was the solution to widespread cholera outbreaks in Honduras, where they traveled yearly as missioners. Combining the technology with training and prayer is bringing healthier lives to God’s thirstiest people.

The Water Women – now numbering more than 115,000 worldwide – promise to provide clean water for their families and three other neighboring families using a Sawyer PointONE water filter. Water With Blessings is now active in 48 countries and the Navajo nation in the United States.

Water With Blessings was chosen as the 2014 winner of the Clarence H. Moore Award for Excellence in Voluntary Service. The award is one of six Awards for Excellence in Inter-American Public Health, awarded by the Pan American Health Organization Foundation, an affiliate of the World Health Organization.

For her ministry, Sister Larraine has received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015 from Brescia University, the 2018 Kentucky Humanitarian of the Year Award presented by the Muhammad Ali Center, and an honorary doctorate in Divinity from Providence (R.I.) College in 2019.