The Women’s Ministries team at the Jefferson Avenue church in Rochester, New York, coordinated a birthday celebration for the church’s oldest member. Rosa Wims turns 99 years old on December 23; still, on December 19, church members formed a motorcade and headed to the rehabilitation center where Wims lives to show tangible expressions of love and appreciation to this woman of God and Jefferson Avenue church servant leader. Despite the frigid temperature, the members celebrated Wims in a drive-by parade by sharing cards, flowers, and warm greetings.
Wims has a long history of serving the Rochester community and the Jefferson Avenue church. Earlier in December, Deborah Stamps, executive vice president, and chief nursing education and diversity officer for the Rochester Regional Health System, announced the Rosa W. Wims, LPN, Nursing Scholarship Fund. The fund will “support the education, training, and certification of nursing students in efforts to promote a diversified and inclusive workforce throughout the Rochester Regional Health System.” Wims became one of the first black licensed professional nurses at Rochester General Hospital and retired from there in 1984 after 30 years of service.
Wims continued serving the community in her retirement and founded the Faith Community Health Awareness Center, where people could receive minor medical services and food. She also served on the board of directors for Foodlink and started a pre-Thanksgiving dinner tradition feeding hundreds of Rochester city residents.
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Angela Tucker-Hill, communication director, Jefferson Avenue church, and the Rochester Regional Health Foundation
