Owners and staff of a Berks County car dealership are committed to being part of the larger community and have extended that reach into Schuylkill County.

Steve Moyer Subaru of Leesport is adopting every public elementary and middle school in Schuylkill County.They started the local campaign with the Tamaqua Area School District.The company will also be supporting the Panther Valley School District in Carbon County.Ken Veit, sales and marketing, and Joe Peritz, sales, traveled to the Tamaqua Area School District on Tuesday in a van loaded down with kick balls for the students and travel coffee mugs for the staffs at Tamaqua Elementary, West Penn Elementary and the Tamaqua Middle schools.They were met with squeals of delight from the kids and broad smiles from the school principals and staff."The kickballs and mugs are just our way of getting started," Veit said. "We're hoping to get wish lists from all the schools as to things we can help supply in the future."Peritz, who lives in Minersville, was quick to supply the Moyers with the names of the schools in Schuylkill County when they asked for suggestions on ways to become more community-oriented."Our dealership has been heavily involved in the Leesport area but we wanted to do more. The idea is simple, with the budget cuts affecting our schools, the community needs to find ways to continue to provide for programs like physical education and art," Peritz said.Veit said, "When schools cut budgets, they cut in places some may see as the extras. We want to do our part as the community, faculty, staff and parents come together to fill that gap."As the students tested their new kickballs, Peritz couldn't help but smile broadly."Seeing the smiles on their faces says it all. It's a nice feeling to give back to the community," Peritz said.