The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation has received a $25,000 grant from the Energy Corporation of America (ECA) Foundation to fund the Reading Together literacy program in the Cherry Creek School District. ECA is a privately-owned, international energy company headquartered in the Denver Tech Center.

"This is the largest program grant from another foundation that we have received this year - and in recent history," said Gaye Leonard, Executive Director of the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation. "This funding and endorsement of the Reading Together program will allow more Cherry Creek students to experience the many benefits of this powerful literacy program."

Reading Together targets students who score in the partially proficient or unsatisfactory range on CSAP reading tests. It pairs fourth and fifth grade students, who are trained as tutors, with second and third grade students, who are tutees. They work together after school to improve their reading skills.

The program has been implemented in 38 Cherry Creek elementary schools with remarkable results. One hundred percent of fourth and fifth grade tutors, who completed the program as prescribed, made a full year's growth on the 2007 CSAP reading test. In fact, tutors average three years of growth in reading achievement and tutees average two years of growth.

Those proven results are one of the reasons the ECA Foundation chose to support the Reading Together program.

"ECA is committed to providing both employee time and the financial resources of our Company and Foundation to improve the community and environment," said Julie Mork, ECA Foundation Managing Director. "What better way to improve our community than to support the academic growth and success of today's students, who are the employees, innovators and leaders of tomorrow."

In addition to her work with the ECA Foundation, Julie Mork is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation. She and her husband John Mork, ECA CEO, were Founding Benefactors of the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation and have a history of generous personal support for the Cherry Creek School District and many other civic and charitable organizations.