For the fourth year, the three Soroptimist International groups on Whidbey Island are teaming up to help raise funds and awareness for women’s heart health.

The fourth Red Dress Ball will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, at the Whidbey Golf and Country Club in Oak Harbor. The event will feature a buffet dinner, a short educational program about heart health, a dessert option and dancing, as well as a raffle.

The proceeds from the tickets, desserts and raffle will be split evenly among the Oak Harbor, Coupeville and South Whidbey chapters of Soroptimist International to fund the Heart of a Woman program.

That program helps women with screenings for heart disease, paying for both the screenings and, for qualified women, necessary healthcare, according to Marta Page of the Oak Harbor branch.

“I think so far since (Heart of a Woman) started, we have helped at least 450 women on the island get heart health screenings,” Page said.

The program will educate attendees about heart health in relation to emergency room visits.

“It’s to promote heart health for women because more women die from heart disease than any other disease,” Page said. “(Statistically,) it’s getting better … with education and awareness, so we’d like to continue that.”

Page started the Red Dress Ball four years ago while she was the president-elect of her chapter; she said starting it was “one of my dreams.”

“The reason I wanted us to do this was sort of personal,” Page said. “My dad died at the age of 39 after a couple of heart attacks, and of course we all paid attention, but I ended up having my own little incident before I was 50.”

Which chapter pays for a woman’s heart screening is determined by the zip code she lives in, Page said.

The chapters have printed 140 tickets for the event, which are available for purchase at the Soroptimist Thrift Store: Upscale Resale, Casual House, from Soroptimist members of any club or by calling Page at 360-675-5999. Ticket cost is $50.

“We’d love to have all kinds of people come just to expose them to the program, to let them know that this program is out there.”

Page said that anyone attending the Red Dress Ball can expect “great food, great fun, a compact program.”

“Our goal is to make it a fun evening to raise awareness for women’s heart health issues and to fund our program.”