General Electric (GE) presented two grant awards to Communities In Schools of North Texas (CISNT) at the Lewisville ISD school board meeting Monday night totaling $45,000 for their work in LISD schools. CISNT and GE began working together to help students in LISD who are at-risk of completing school on time more than 5 years ago when GE employees began volunteering as mentors in CISNT’s dropout prevention program. The grant awards, presented by Ms. Kristin Larimore, GE Volunteer & Philanthropy committee leader, follow a commitment earlier this year of nearly 100 GE volunteers serving as mentors through CISNT in LISD.

“We deeply appreciate the support GE and their generous employees have shown CISNT and our students. In addition to this amazing donation, we have benefitted from GE professional development they have donated for our staff. CISNT is an emerging brand in the non profit community, GE is an established brand that we have learned a tremendous amount from as we grow our business of helping kids stay in school”, remarks Gary Henderson, CISNT executive director. “The GE/CISNT partnership is a win-win-win proposition – CISNT is enriched, GE employees are blessed by our students, and our CISNT students are provided the support and resources they need to succeed.”

Ms. Larimore reflects, "Especially during the holiday season, it's very rewarding to have an opportunity to present this $45,000 contribution to Communities in Schools of North Texas on behalf of GE's 1,000 local area employees. We know that these funds will be used to ensure that CISNT programs in Lewisville ISD benefit children in need. We've strengthened the GE/CISNT partnership in 2007 through various community and volunteer efforts and look forward to our continued partnership in 2008!"

CISNT board president, Lori Krouskos comments, “This generous GE award, as well as other fundraising efforts underway, including CISNT’s community giving campaign “Step up to the Plate”, brings us closer to securing the funds needed to operate our dropout prevention programs in 2008. While there are many schools in need of a CISNT program in Denton and Wise counties, our initial focus as a board is to make certain that the children who count on CISNT staff and volunteers today will be there for them tomorrow. However, in our community over the last two years, the population of at-risk students has increased over 23 percent, so we know that we must find creative means to expand our services.”

CISNT, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, is focused on bringing the vast resources of the community to students who are at-risk of dropping out of school through intensive case management and strategic volunteer mentor and student resource deployment. To learn more about CISNT visit www.CISNT.org or call (972)436-6377.

GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work — a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world's toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and advanced materials, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.

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