Letters to Freddie

Midge Thomas is a creative visionary with a passion for bettering the Rochester, New York community. She and her husband, Dr. Freddie Thomas, were highly involved with tutoring and inspiring Rochester's struggling youth in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since Freddie's untimely death in 1974, Midge has dedicated her life to city improvement projects in his honor and memory. In the years since Freddie's passing, Midge has established a not-for-profit foundation in his name, established two city community centers, erected a public drinking fountain so that everyone has access to clean water, and started numerous social clubs for aging seniors. She is the recipient of many awards, including a national Jefferson Award (1982), an ATHENA Award Nominee (1994), and is an inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame (2003). Throughout this time, Midge chronicled her thoughts and feelings in heartfelt letters to her late husband. Each chapter of Letters to Freddie opens with one of these letters, which sets the tone of Midge's mindset during that exact period of her life. Letters to Freddie is not only the biography of an important community philanthropist, it is an inspiring story of how one's love and devotion can last a lifetime and inspire positive change.