The Gig Harbor Eagles Auxiliary will host its annual Heart Ball on Saturday, a benefit for Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma.

The event, which will begin with a social hour at 5 p.m. and continue with dinner at 6 p.m. and music and dancing afterward, will raise money for the hospital’s infant heart screening program.

The Eagles have been established in Gig Harbor for almost 65 years, and the Eagles Auxiliary has been around nearly as long, acting as a fundraising arm for numerous, mostly health-related charities. The auxiliary’s heart program is one of many fundraising efforts that also include programs for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and more.

Each fundraising effort typically hosts at least one annual event, and the Heart Ball is one of the Gig Harbor auxiliary’s largest. Proceeds go toward research programs at Mary Bridge directed toward finding heart defects in newborns at the hospital, and finding them early, so surgery can be implemented quickly if problems are found.

“They’ve saved quite a few babies’ lives by having this program available to them,” said Margaret Japhet, who, as the Gig Harbor auxiliary’s heart chairwoman, spearheads the infant heart screening program’s fundraising effort.

Japhet has been a member of the auxiliary for 25 years and has led heart fundraising for the past two decades. She was inspired by her own experience with a granddaughter, who was born at Mary Bridge with a hole in her heart.

“They took care of her so well at Mary Bridge,” Japhet said. “So it’s been something that I really believed in.”

Japhet also writes an annual grant application to the Eagles’ Max Baer Heart Fund, a national program through the Fraternal Order of Eagles that awards grants of $5,000 to local fundraising programs. The Gig Harbor auxiliary has been awarded the grant many times – Japhet estimates it has given Mary Bridge more than $50,000 in grant money throughout the years – but Japhet won’t find out whether the chapter has been awarded the grant again this year until May.

All money raised at fundraising events, such as the Heart Ball, that supplement grants also are distributed to charities through the Eagles’ national office, known as the Grand Aerie.

Nancy Ramsey, a Gig Harbor resident and Eagles Auxiliary member, represents the next level down in the organization’s structure as the heart chairwoman for the state of Washington.

As state chairwoman, Ramsey gathers reports on heart program fundraising from different auxiliary groups across Washington. There are 90 such auxiliaries in the state, although not all of them raise funds for heart programs. Instead, they focus on other health causes.

Ramsey said Gig Harbor’s auxiliary has made a big impact with its heart program fundraising.

“From what I understand from Mary Bridge, Gig Harbor Eagles is largely responsible for getting that program to be a mandatory test for all newborn babies (at the hospital),” she said.

One of the state Eagles’ eventual goals is to replicate that program at all hospitals, so infant heart screening will be mandatory for all newborns.

Saturday’s event also will feature a silent auction and raffle to help with the fundraising effort. A king and queen of the ball will be crowned, Eagles members who have been particularly active in volunteer work and community service this year.

The Heart Ball will be held at the Eagles’ hall, 4425 Burnham Drive.

“Hopefully, we do a large turnout,” Ramsey said. “We’re hoping to raise a lot of money for Mary Bridge, and the more we can do to help them, the more they can do to help the babies.”

Reporter Will Livesley-O’Neill can be reached at 253-358-4152 or by email at will.livesley-oneill@gateline.com. Follow him on Twitter, @gateway_will.