HAVING SURVIVED CANCER 20 years back, Freddie Barrett Rainwater will tell you with a laugh that from her point of view, every day is a good day. And though she is still active in environmental causes in nearby Pensacola, many of these days she is content to practice the piano and play with her six dogs and otherwise relax.
But if it hadn’t been for Freddie, the westernmost Florida Panhandle today would lack not just one but two charities that have helped tens of thousands of women and children over more than 25 years: the Favor House shelter for abused women and their children, and Manna Food Pantries, both headquartered in Pensacola.
Freddie grew up in Pensacola. A doctor’s daughter, she knew she was both happy and lucky compared to many other children, such as those in the local home for disabled children. So to her it was only natural that when she and her husband moved back to Pensacola as young parents, she should find ways to volunteer.
By chance she was invited in the late 1970s to a meeting of community leaders running a survey to find out if there were battered women in Pensacola. Not only was the answer yes, but the victims desperately wanted help—something the survey hadn’t planned on.
Freddie jumped in. She knew nothing about nonprofits, but her husband’s business connections opened doors, and she was skilled at persuading people to help. Most important, she would not give up. She remembers that after the first makeshift shelter had opened in a tiny house donated by a hospital, a battered woman brought in her child, and Freddie saw cigarette burns up and down the little girl’s legs. “When you see something like that, you decide you’re just going to make it work,” she says. Today, Favor House has the third most beds of shelters in the state, giving refuge to more than 400 women and children each year.
For Manna Pantries, founded in 1983, Freddie played a less central but similar role: when the organization needed help in getting started, Freddie brought together the resources to make it happen. Today, Manna gathers and distributes food to more than 25,000 hungry people annually, 40 percent of whom are under 18.
Looking back, Freddie says her mother would say it was just a matter of being stubborn. “If something needs to be done, I’m not able to turn away so easily as I might wish. I just think that if you open your eyes and look around, there is so much that we can do.”
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