Awards

Honored during Rosalie Manor’s Centennial event will be Rosemarie Fisher, this year’s Rosalie Jette Spirit award recipient. The award, named for the agency’s founder, honors Fisher for her numerous contributions as the director of Rosalie Manor from 1982 to 2001. Throughout her career, Rosemarie has demonstrated the mission and spirit of Rosalie Jette working by the values of Compassion; Mutuality; Companioning; Non-violence; and Hospitality.

About the Rosalie Jette Spirit Award: The Rosalie Jette Spirit Award is given in honor of Rosalie Jette, Foundress the Misericordia Sisters. With the help of Montreal’s Bishop Bourget, Rosalie Jette began her work in 1845. Rosalie was a 50-year old widow with grown children when she began her new mission to “live the Mercy of Jesus the Savior with young girls and women who are pregnant and out of wedlock, and with their children, and also with married women who life their pregnancies with difficulty.” At the time, unwed mothers were shunned from the community and those people who assisted “these sinners” were treated badly as well. Because of this, Rosalie’s new calling had many hardships. She and her companions were rejected from their community, Rosalie’s family disowned her and her son took all of her personal belongings. Despite these circumstances, Rosalie forged ahead living out her mission until her death almost 20 years after she began.

Because of Rosalie’s personal mission, key values have been ingrained in Rosalie Manor’s history. These values shape our minds and hearts as individuals, community members and helping professionals, and are demonstrated by the mission of Rosalie Manor. These shared values which serve as the foundation for selecting the recipients of the Rosalie Jette Spirit Award are:

• Compassion
• Mutuality
• Companioning
• Non-violence
• Hospitality

About Rosemarie Fisher: Beginning in 1975, Rosemarie has worked with young mothers in various capacities. From 1975 through 1978 she worked as a social worker at Rosalie Manor in Brookfield and then moved to New York where she worked at Rosalie Hall, another home run by the Misericordia Sisters for single pregnant women, for another 4 years. She returned to Milwaukee in 1982 when she became Executive Director.

During Rosemarie’s 19 year tenure as Executive Director of Rosalie Manor she was instrumental in keeping the spirit of Rosalie Jette alive through her vision of what the agency should be. Just as Rosalie went to the women in need, Rosemarie was influential in bringing Rosalie Manor back to Milwaukee after 14 years of being housed in Brookfield, to be closer to the women we served.

While never deviating from serving single mothers, Rosemarie had the foresight to see that two-parent families could benefit from programming and the agency began to serve all families in need. She also understood the need to offer programming that met the specific needs of fathers, and prior to her retirement, started the Today’s Dad’s program which has expanded to serve more fathers than ever before.

She also saw the potential in the city’s youth, and realized that something could be done to encourage youth to make positive choices and not become a teen parent. In fact, the teen pregnancy prevention program created more than 20 years ago is now implemented in several states and communities throughout the United States.

Rosemarie has been dedicated to the mission of Rosalie Manor since beginning more than 30 years ago, and continues to carry out the spirit of Rosalie Jette, even after retiring to FL in 2001, by working in a community based organization as a counselor and fund raiser.

Because of Rosemarie’s key values, personal mission, and the continued fortitude with which she lives her live, we offer Rosemarie the Rosalie Jette Spirit Award.