Patricia (Trish) Rooney has joined Fox Valley United Way as the first director of SPARK (Strong, Prepared And Ready for Kindergarten), the Aurora Early Childhood Collaboration. Announced earlier this year by a coalition of leading civic organizations – Fox Valley United Way, the Dunham Fund, the City of Aurora and the four school districts that educate the vast majority of Aurora children – SPARK seeks to improve the school readiness skills of local pre-school age children. Those skills, Rooney said, center on early literacy, math, social and emotional skills.