On May 21, the Sisters of Providence in the Seattle area hosted members of Bouten Construction for a Mass and luncheon at St. Joseph Residence. The Bouten family and the Sisters have collaborated for many years.
The company built the Providence Sacred Heart Women’s Center and Children’s Hospital in Spokane, the St. Joseph Residence in West Seattle, and many other projects for the community. Bill Bouten is retiring this year and will be heading to Africa for two years of ministry – a move he attributed to the example he saw in the Sisters of Providence over many years.
Bill, the recipient of the 2005 Mother Joseph Award, sponsored an employee of his company to travel to El Salvador with a group of Providence Associates in 2001 to build homes for the poor. In 1997, he traveled to Romania with Northwest Medical Teams to help repair an orphanage.
For ten years, Bouten has been a volunteer with the winter sleeping program for homeless men at the House of Charity. He also served on the Holy Family Hospital Foundation, Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation, Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital Foundation and the board of Ronald McDonald House Children’s Charities. He is a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral, Spokane.