The Dunkirk region has plenty of stories about Rozumalski working at lunches and fundraisers, canvassing for petitions, recruiting for community groups and even helping translate letters to and from the Polish she learned from her parents, John and Sofia Kulpa. Born in neighboring Sheridan on Jan. 23, 1920, she has lived in the town of Dunkirk her entire life and recalls growing up with gas lamps and horse carriages when it was a spread out farming community.

“We had to be active in the town because we had to be to get anything,” Rozumalski says.

More than 100 people joined her on Jan. 19, for a Catholic Mass in her honor at Blessed Mary Angela parish and her 100th birthday party at the Kosciuszko Club, including Dunkirk town supervisor Dick Purol. The celebration included toasts from friends and family, some of whom traveled far from homes in Puerto Rico or Texas for the occasion. The event was marked by both tears and laughter as guests recounted tales from Rozumalski’s life.

“She’s a real mover and a shaker,” Purol says. “People like her have kept the town running. Everyone has a relative who knows her, and people look up to her.”

Rozumalski is in the center with the Rosary Society of St. Hyacinth in Dunkirk while she was president of the group.

Her part of town didn’t have a fire station when she grew up in Dunkirk, for instance, so in 1951 her husband John Rozumalski worked with fellow residents to build the East Dunkirk Fire Department using materials donated or purchased from local businesses. She helped fundraise for the construction and became an active member of the women’s auxiliary of the new volunteer fire station.

Always full of energy, juggling volunteer work and parenting three daughters with her late husband came so naturally to her that it felt “seamless” to the rest of the family, says her daughter Marian Desnyder.

“I remember her being the queen of petitions to get electrical power and telephone service,” Desnyder says. “She’s a real grassroots politician. But there were never piles of paperwork crowding the table at home. It never ran our lives. It was very much in the background because she did it so well.”

Rozumalski has served as president of the Rosary Society, organizing lunches and fundraisers for the St. Hyacinth parish where she and her parents and grandparents were members. She recruited Rita Cieslewicz to join, who recalls that Rozumalski said, “you can never do enough for the community or the church.”

There were no supporting committees for St. Hyacinth parish school where Desnyder went to grade school, so Rozumalski became one of the founding members of the Mother’s Club to help with fundraising.

“There are very few things going on that she has not had a hand in the community,” Desnyder says.

Her decades of volunteer work have included serving as president of the citizens’ advisory committee at Brooks Memorial Hospital, and serving as regional president of the AARP, going to meetings in Albany and Syracuse. Rozumalski also organized driving courses for AARP members in the region. Generations of friends in Dunkirk have treated her like family since the death of her husband in 1984.

At 100 years of age, Rozumalski has taken a break from volunteering to focus on time with her six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, but Purol says “I can always count on her to help with petitions.”