This weekend, Aug. 26-28, the Borough of Coplay will welcome 9,000 to 13,000-plus attendees to its one-square-mile community of approximately 3,300 people who proudly call it home.

Community Days will be held 6-10 p.m. Friday and noon-9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Parkway Park, Second and Keefer streets.

“I’d like to share a little history on how the Coplay Community Days got started 36 years ago,” said Steve Burker, Coplay Community Days president. “I believe to get the facts correct, I’d have to reach out to a source who can best provide the answers; in this case, I reached out to lifelong Coplay resident Al Recker.”

Recker is a longtime Press writer and columnist.

“Recker informed me that 36 years ago, members of Coplay council [were] approached by Lehigh County Historical Society and head of Lehigh County museums, Mahlon Helrich, to help promote exposure and attendance to the Coplay Cement museum. Helrich asked Coplay Borough to share his vision of a community festival, which in part would be held to honor all the Coplay Cement workers and serve as a fundraiser for the Coplay community.

“Here we are today sharing and supporting that vision 36 years later,” Burker said.

For several years, polkas were the focus of Coplay Community Days.

“Seventy-five percent of the entertainment was polka,” Burker said. “Community Days has grown in some ways beyond our imagination, but our vision and quest for the present and future has never been clearer and stronger.”

The Coplay Community Days board continues to strive to “keep the festival fresh with new attractions” but also keeping in mind tradition, Burker said. A few of the new features this year are Holencik Exteriors’ Kidz Zone area, where there will be free swimming noon-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Parkway Pool.

Also, there will be a Dip-N-Dance by D.H. Productions 1-5 p.m. Saturday.

Coplay Public Library will host a duck pond.

And 4:30-5:15 p.m. Sunday, “the pool will be open to bring your dog for a swim [for] a $2 donation,” Burker said. The donations will be used to fight animal cruelty.

“There will be a mix of music, from Aardvarks, classic rock and dance party; to Crazy Heart, country; Cunningham & Associates, rock and Springsteen style; Lucky 7, funk and high-energy dance and Motown; Walt Groller, polka; Elvis tribute artist Andy Svreck; and The Large Flowerheads, classic ’60s and ’70s dance party,” Burker said. “We have the best talented bands all right here in the Lehigh Valley.”

The proceeds of Community Days benefit projects in the borough, Burker said.

Over the past five years, Community Days has contributed more than $50,000 for items such as library computers, borough security cameras, a borough bucket truck, fencing for Balliet Stadium and upgrades to Saylor Parkway.

“We receive all the support we need from our Mayor (Dean) Molitoris and (public works Director) Paul Boyle,” Burker said.

“We have more than 90 volunteers who donate their time for the ‘Party in the Park’ weekend, not counting the many volunteers like the Coplay American Club crew who, on Wednesday and Thursday before the festival, bring an army of volunteers to set up tents, tables and chairs,” Burker said. “Community Days has been very fortunate to have great community support.”