A community business is partnering with its local school district this weekend to raise funds for educational initiatives.

At the second Lehighton Community Carnival, scheduled to run Thursday through Saturday at the middle school practice field, attendees will have the opportunity to test drive a Lehighton Ford vehicle.For each test drive, Ford Motor Company will donate $20 to the Lehighton Education and Athletic Foundation, who is sponsoring the carnival."It's a great opportunity for community outreach," said Bill Klepeiss, Lehighton Ford general manager. "Anything we can do to help out the kids in Lehighton, we're willing to do that. When this possibility came about, we jumped right on it. We can always say we're concerned about the students and their future, but this is a time to put some skin in the game."The event is known as "Drive 4UR School" and will be set up in the lower parking lot of the Shull-David Elementary School from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday.LEAF officials are hoping to get 300 people to come out for the fundraiser in order to reach its $6,000 fundraising goal.Each registered driver, one per address, will have the opportunity to complete a 10 minute test-drive on a predetermined route.Drivers must be at least 18 years of age with a valid driver's license.To sign up, visit

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a49a8ad22a5ff2-drive."We really stay out of the way," Klepeiss said. "We have to be in the car for insurance purposes, but this is a no-pressure environment and an opportunity to support the school district."Funds raised will be used by LEAF to continue several of its existing ventures and possibly a few new ones.Tim Tkach, a LEAF board member and Lehighton's director of curriculum, instruction and grants, said the big push right now is the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math initiative in the district."We're going to have two more STEM-focused camps this summer dealing with robotics and kitchen chemistry," Tkach said. "Those cost about $165 per student, but we're able to bring that down to $25 per student through LEAF and other fundraising. We also have four portable STEM labs that go around to the students in the district, so we're making great strides in that department."Lehighton is also expanding its summer reading program from one morning session per week by adding a three-hour evening session at night.LEAF provides four $1,000 scholarships to students in the district and also gives scholarships to teachers to purchase supplies for educational programs."One of the up-and-coming things is we recently visited a STEM SmartLab just north of Washington, D.C., and we're really hoping we can bring that to the high school," Tkach said.The community carnival opens at 4 p.m. Thursday, which is also family night from 4 to 8 p.m. For $15, guests can ride all the rides, provided by Nonweiler Amusements Midway Inc.Entertainment is scheduled for Friday and Saturday night.A.D.D. will play Friday night beginning at 7 p.m., followed by D.J. Danny E on Saturday at the same time.Lehighton High School's student council, National Honor Society and schoolwide positive behavior team will be volunteering at the event, which again features a dunk tank."It's a great thing that this event is continuing to grow," Lehighton High School Principal Craig Reichl said. "The carnival gives our students and the community a safe venue where they can go hang out and have a good time. It's really about getting the community together and establishing this as a carnival that you know is this one weekend a year and something you can plan your spring around."