Members of the Utah Chamber and a six-time PGA Tour winner gathered together Tuesday morning for a little golf — and something much bigger.
Before getting out on the course and swinging the club with Utah’s own touring golf pro Tony Finau, Utah business leaders — dedicated to growing stronger business environments, increasing healthy job creation and supporting prosperous communities under the Utah Chamber organization — gathered to listen to several different founders and their pleas to become involved in improving the literacy rates of Utah children.
Finau shared his personal experiences, as well as some of his favorite reads, before heading out on the course.
“I don’t see why ... we can’t achieve (the 100% goal for child reading proficiency). We’re so extremely proud to just be part of this initiative and pushing this (agenda) in Utah. I don’t think that there’s many things much more important.”
Pro golfer Tony Finau, on Utah organizations working to promote literacy in schoolchildren
“Every child who learns to love to read has opportunity to do well in the classroom, has opportunity to grow and develop confidence and strength,” Christine Ivory, president of the Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation, said to the group gathered at the Salt Lake Country Club. “It’s not a dream to support that reality. We want people to understand how critical it is that we read.”
Ivory referenced The Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch, who has written extensively about the postliterate society that is becoming our reality. Ivory challenged everyone to think of the last book they had read as she embraced the necessity that we continue to engage the critical thinking parts of our brains through literature.
“There are about 183,000 children (in grades kindergarten through third grade in Utah). When you think that over half of those children for the past 10 years have not been reading to a level of proficiency, you just think about how that impacts (them),” she said.
Ivory declared it a “moral imperative” that every child at every school is taken care of and has the same opportunity.
“It blesses us when we all take care of each other.”
No kid left behind
Alluding to the lofty challenge that lay ahead, Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Derek Miller believes the private sector should take on responsibility.
“Eight out of every 10 dollars that circulates through Utah’s economy is created by the private sector,” he said. “And since it’s the private sector that drives Utah’s economy, it ought to be the private sector that guides Utah’s economy.”
After plenty of research and discussion, Miller said the best way to guide Utah’s economy is to raise the literacy rates of all Utah third graders to proficient levels by 2030.
“I just have to say, the original goal was 90%, and Hope (Eccles) came to us and said, ‘Derek, who are the 10% we’re going to leave behind?’ Obviously, we have to increase from 50% incrementally, but Hope was absolutely right,” Miller said. “Anything less than 100% is not appropriate when it comes to our kids being able to read. And that’s, of course, why we’re all here this morning.”
The Literacy Match Program is one initiative underway to combat the discouraging test scores in the state.
Elementary schools were able to make requests for the materials each school specifically needs for its own K-3 grade levels, Miller explained. Those requests will be paired with businesses across the state to give these businesses a direct way to get involved.
“This is the kind of problem-solving that Utah is known for. And Utah enjoys the prosperity today because the leaders of yesterday chose to act. So now, the leaders of today need to make that same choice.”
Finau’s favorite genres
Most recently competing in the Baycurrent Classic at Yokohama Country Club in Japan on Oct. 8-11, Finau appeared to represent his charity, the Tony Finau Foundation.
“When I started the Tony Finau Foundation in 2015, it was a foundation that I wanted to start primarily to give back to the west side of Salt Lake City, where I grew up,” the six-time PGA Tour winner said. And while he loved growing up there, he also “saw the challenges growing up, and what it was like being around an area that, again, was an incredible place to grow up, but a place that you could tell needed more resources. And that’s why I started my foundation. We’re going to give back to the elementary kids, and I wanted to make sure we focused on the youth.”
Having never earned a college degree, Finau said he felt “behind the eight ball.”
“I needed to learn a lot of things about life, and reading was my avenue to do that. So I became an avid reader.”
The golfer, who enjoys self-help books, leadership books ranging from presidents to kings, biographies and the Book of Mormon, has even begun dabbling in a few romance novels thanks to his wife, Alayna Galeaʻi-Finau. He is always looking for more books to read and said reading has always been a passion of his.
And if you want to know what he would recommend to a sports enthusiast, Phil Knight’s autobiography “Shoe Dog” is it. The book takes readers through his chaotic and high-risk journey creating Nike, one of the world’s most iconic sports brands.
“I was just fortunate to have the resources to go to elementary school and read, to have great teachers, great parents to teach me how to read. That was an avenue for me to gain knowledge and just have a step up in life.”
Finau said there have been many books over the years through his “Birdies for Books” pledge, where a birdie on Tour equals 25 books donated to Salt Lake City School District. Likewise, an eagle is 50 books and a tournament won is 1,000.
Since creating his Tony Finau Foundation Literacy Center in West Valley two years ago, Finau says literacy levels at his center have increased 19% while also assisting with vision screenings, food distribution and other essentials.
“With the support I have here, and with this type of momentum, I don’t see why ... we can’t achieve” (the 100% goal for child reading proficiency), Finau said. “We’re so extremely proud to just be part of this initiative and pushing this (agenda) in Utah. I don’t think that there’s many things much more important.
“In an era where digital is everything, our kids are on Instagram, they’re on social media, learning how to read and getting lost in a book, I think, is something that our kids need and that the future needs.”