Tim Reardon described the regional Rotary Literacy Team's BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) for 2025: they seek to transform communities to have the highest reading proficiency with the fewest inequities and achieve it with "a fierce urgency of now." The benchmarks of success: every child is "wired" to read by age 3 and reads proficiently at grade level. Rotarians are championing this effort in communities across Minnesota and the Distric Team aspires to spread this movement to Wisconsin as well. Tim opened his talk by asking us to put our minds in the place of 3rd graders who know that they are behind their peers when it's time to read in class. He also presented statistics about the price that both individuals and society pays for our collective failure to make sure that all children are able to read. To be further inspired/challenged, click Download Files below to see Tim's slides.
About Tim Reardon: Tim is a seasoned executive, consultant and professor who aspires to accelerate opportunities to break the cycle of generational poverty and racial injustice in Minnesota. He brings a track record of creating authentic mutually respectful community relationships, implementing evidence-based strategies, building multi-sector partnerships/collaborations and inspiring people to give their time, talent and treasure for a worthy cause.