Massage Pioneer Sister Rosalind Gefre Honored by
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as Top Woman in Business
St. Paul, Minnesota -- Massage pioneer Sister Rosalind Gefre has been recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as one of the Twin Cities leading women in business. An awards luncheon was held on July 21, 2005, to honor Sister Rosalind and other women business leaders and the honorees were also featured in a special Women in Business publication in the Friday, July 22 edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
Sister Rosalind is the founder of the Sister Rosalind Schools and Clinics of Massage and the Sister Rosalind Christian Ministries. Her massage ministry, once considered controversial in the early 1980s, now includes 150 employees and five professional schools and seven professional clinics in Burnsville, St. Paul, Maplewood, Mankato, Sauk Rapids and Rochester, Minnesota, and in Fargo, North Dakota. Total revenues in 2004 were $3 million and to date, thousands have taken classes and graduated from schools bearing Sister Rosalind's name.
Sister Rosalind states: "Massage is now very popular and very accepted. But for a long period of time I had to work against a widespread negative feeling about massage and it was really hard. By being a Catholic sister, people told me I raised the image of massage and made it something respectable."
Sister Rosalind has expanded the offerings at her schools to include Chair Massage and Reflexology as well as a Professional Massage Program. In addition, Sister Rosalind is turning her clinics into complete wellness centers that include chiropractic, acupuncture and nutritional supplements as well as Sister Rosalind's own skin care products and she hopes to add naturopathic or homeopathic doctors in the future.
This year Sister Rosalind is also embarking upon a project of the Sister Rosalind Christian Ministries to develop and raise funds for a special "place of healing" on a donated farm property in southern Minnesota near Lake Pepin. "This will be a place where people can pray and focus on not just the physical aspect of healing but on the spiritual aspect of healing as well. For the past two years we have had free public prayer meetings once a month in the evenings that have been held at my West St. Paul Massage School. During these meetings I pray for people who are seeking healing for themselves and their loved ones. Our place of healing will involve many people, including volunteers, who will pray for those who need healing. It will also be a place that people can visit to commune with God in a natural setting."
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Photo of Sister Rosalind with the Women in Business awards luncheon speaker Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Carslon Companies, a regular on Fortune magazine's list of the Most Powerful Women in Business. The photo features Sister Rosalind giving Marilyn the biography of Sister Rosalind's life titled "Hands That Touch, Hands That Heal."
Photo of Sister Rosalind with Peter Fahnlander, President of Sister Rosalind Schools and Clinics of Massage and Sister Rosalind Christian Ministries.
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