SHARE:
Southwest Florida Business Profile
ReadingPals
Three years ago, Lakeland’s Carol and Barney Barnett, members of the family that founded Publix, pledged to donate $1 million annually to boost the number of Florida children who are able to read well by the end of third grade. The resulting program, ReadingPals, is a joint effort by the Children’s Movement of Florida and the United Way. So far, nearly 5,000 trained volunteers have been deployed across 10 Florida regions to improve the reading skills of some 8,200 children.
Last spring, the Barnetts pledged another $1 million annually to expand ReadingPals to a total of 15 United Way regions, including a significant swath of southwest Florida. Beginning this fall, ReadingPals will expand to Orlando, Citrus County, Escambia County, Lee and Hendry counties and the Suwannee Valley.
