How the west was nunned

BURBANK -- The Sisters of Providence started a good habit in the west about 150 years ago.

Mother Emilie Gamelin founded Sisters of Providence in Montreal in 1843 and sent Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart -- whose birth name was Esther Pariseau -- to Spokane, Wash., in 1856 to start a western outreach.

Since Dec. 8, 1856, the Sisters of Providence have been busy opening churches, health care facilities, schools and other public-services.

It was just a matter of time before they got to Burbank.

The sisters opened Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in 1943 and Providence High School in 1955 here.

Now they are planning a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the “Sister of Providence in the West.” The celebration started Thursday with a Christmas party for employees and supporters.

The 427-bed hospital treated more than 19,000 patients in 2004 and employs 2,250 people, including 589 registered nurses, hospital spokesman Dan Boyle said.

But the impact of the hospital and school on the community is not driven by profits, Boyle said. It is a comprehensive nonprofit health-care organization sponsored by the Sisters Of Providence, he said.

“The mission here is to meet the health needs of people as they journey through life, and to provide the needed health care for the community,” Boyle said. “Everything we do helps us meet that mission and all the employees are very familiar with those core values and we work hard to live that mission each day.”

The hospital provided $13.8 million in community benefits in 2004 through outreach programs and free medical care, Boyle said.

“All the money we take in pays for health care and goes back into the community,” he said.

The hospital, along with Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, provided $6 million in medical services for working families with limited incomes in 2004 through the Mother Emilie Gamelin Foundation, Boyle said.

Sister Mary Hawkins, who has been with Providence High School since 1970 and serves as the vice principal, said the international company succeeds because of its belief in faith and local control.

“The school is a business and any institution Sisters of Providence owns all have our own local management,” she said.

Sister of Providence also owns the University of Montana, she said.

Like other faith-based schools, Providence has had a resurgence in attendance in recent years, Hawkins said.

“Our mission is to educate a holistic child, which, for us, includes passing on the tradition of faith,” she said. “Our school is primarily Catholic but even with others who come from religious families -- whether Jewish or Protestant -- our intention is to have teachers and students develop their own faith life and grow in it and be knowledgeable in what their beliefs are.”