“Service Above Self” is the motto behind Rotary Club International, a community-based service organization with a sole purpose of providing humanitarian services across the globe. Formed more than 100 years ago, there are 34,000-plus member clubs worldwide under Rotary with more than 1.2 million members. After a 15-year absence, the Whitehall-Coplay community will once again have a Rotary Club to call its own.

Herb Klotz, Laura Long and Sharon Geroulo are picking up where the former club left off and are looking for people with an interest in giving others a helping hand to come join the fight and become a member of the newly reformed club.

Rotary Clubs are a secular organization, meaning the club is open to all people regardless of age, gender, race, religion or political preference. The club’s sole mission is to help others who are less fortunate - thus, the motto “Service Above Self.”

With the club reforming, members will be needed to join. Informational sessions will be held for the public at Whitehall Township Public Library 7:30 a.m. Sept. 13 as well as 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25.

“Whitehall really is the heart of the Lehigh Valley,” Long said, “and with this being such a busy area, we’re looking for people who are vibrant with passion to join us and help the community.”

Long and Geroulo believe community-minded individuals of all ages and backgrounds could benefit from joining the newly formed Rotary Club.

“As long as you have an interest in bettering Whitehall and doing your part to help those in need, then we want you to come out and voice your opinion,” Long said.

Klotz has been highly involved with Rotary Clubs for years and finds it necessary to always make sure those uninformed are well aware of how important it is for the community to get behind organizations like the Rotary Club.

“We help a lot of needy children in the area,” Klotz said. “Take some of the other local Rotary Clubs, for instance. We do work with kids who don’t have the best resources by providing third-graders with dictionaries, and we help those from less-fortunate families with food packs to assure that they don’t go hungry. It’s truly rewarding work, and the kids remember the help that we give them down the line.”

Being a member of the Rotary Club will not only help the local community, but will help worldwide endeavors as well, as the Rotary Club has made it a mission to eradicate the polio virus from the world through the PolioPlus Program.

The Rotary Club also provides fresh water wells and distribution systems to less-fortunate areas around the world while also funding youth scholarships and a number of literacy programs designed to help brighten the future of the world’s youth.

The Rotary Club districtwide will be hosting the Yvette M. Palmer Purple Pinkie 5-K run and 1-plus-mile fun walk/run at Lehigh Carbon Community College Oct. 22. Every dollar raised for the event will be tripled by the Gates Foundation with the proceeds going toward the fight against polio. For registration information, contact Herb Klotz at 484-707-9467 or herbk@ptd.net.

Since the Whitehall club is in a rebuilding stage, it is vital for new members to not only be passionate, but to bring ideas to the table for the club to organize and execute.

“No one is the ruler here,” Long said. “It’s very much a group effort where everybody gets a say.”

Klotz, Long and Geroulo are hoping for the group to have well over 25 members and for the club to really begin its work in January. The club will be heavily involved in fundraisers and will hope to have group breakfast meetings the first and third Tuesdays of every month.

Those interested in more information about the Whitehall-Coplay Rotary Club should contact Laura Long at 610-769-4332 or Sharon Geroulo at 610-360-6145.