Our Service Projects
Join the Allentown West Rotary Club in honoring our community and country through Flags for Unity 2026. This annual program proudly displays American flags throughout the community on select holidays, celebrating patriotism, unity, and service. Proceeds support local initiatives, scholarships, and community projects—making a visible impact right here at home.
We welcome you to dedicate a flag!
Rotary Fellowships are international groups that share a common passion. They are a fun way to make friends around the world, explore a hobby or profession and enhance your Rotary experience - for example be it running marathons, railroads, scuba diving, cricket, dolls, environment, or appreciating wine or whisky.
STEM YEA 2025
STEM YEA is a four‐day, three‐night residential STEM-focused Academy providing equitable opportunities for rising eighth-grade students. The Academy delves into intriguing STEM areas while inspiring and engaging the students. These young people and their parents may not otherwise have this opportunity. The program, sponsored by Rotary Clubs in District 7430, was held at Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA, from July 11 through 13, 2025. The theme was "Astrobiology: the Search for Life on Mars".
Fifty-six students registered for the fourth Academy, and fifty-four completed the four-day event. The 29 female and 27 male students attended 32 public and parochial middle schools. There were no accidents or injuries. Twenty-five District 7430 Rotary Clubs sponsored students for STEM YEA 2025. Students received STEM YEA tee shirts, backpacks, water bottles, lab manuals, drawing pencils, antimicrobial pens, and copies of the session manual. Dr. Michael Seidner led a special ceremony to present white lab coats to the students. Rotary pins were presented at the ceremony to be worn on the lab coats, accompanied by color-coded name badges.
and Kate Ebel-Senior Restoration Ecologist from Wildlands Conservancy presided over the event.
The idea behind an impact club is to entice those who have a desire to provide service to the community without having to be involved in committees, meetings, dinners, and other traditional Rotary functions. It's about pure service to the community. While many people enjoy the fellowship aspect of Rotary, this is a new club model; an impact club is a sort of satellite club, and members are fully active Rotarians and host club members.
The IMPACT club is not just a name, it's a reflection of our autonomy. We create and execute our own projects, inviting Host club members to participate. IMPACT club members can also contribute to host club projects and are always welcome at any Rotary meeting or function if they wish to join.
The AWRC Impact club has two projects in Allentown.
The first is teaching English to recent immigrants at the Refugee Community Center of the Episcopal Church of the Mediator. The Refugee Community Center functions as a safe space for new refugee and asylum neighbors to find hospitality, connection and friendship. The work focuses on adult ESOL education, intentional children’s programming, advocacy and hospitality.
The second focus of the AWRC Impact Club centers around Community Bike Works. Bike Works has programs where youth can sign up to earn a bike, learn how to repair a bicycle, and learn how to maintain it. More than that, they teach youth responsibility and make them aware that they are part of a larger community. Many go on to become involved in Bike Works and their community. A recent project was installing garden beds behind their facility to grow food for the hungry, distributed from their food pantry.
If you have a thirst for service to your community and have little time to do it, contact Diana Dunn. She has created and chartered the club and will be happy to hear from you.
The Food Bank at Kingdom Life Family Center distributes healthy food to an ever-increasing number of families in the Lehigh Valley. In recent times, the distribution has reached over 300 families in need. Given the increasing scale of the work involved, more volunteers are needed to help set up, help with the distribution, and help tear down.
Volunteering is a fulfilling way of providing service to those most in need. Let's see how many Rotarians we can send to be of service.
Service Above Self
Allentown, PA 18104
United States of America