All dressed up for a night of bingo

But while the house is hoping to raise some real money for those who need help, there’s no cash on the table.

“Duxbury is not going to have a casino,’’ said Harry Katz of the Duxbury Interfaith Council, one of the evening’s sponsors.

It’s a light-hearted social event, said Katz, who attended last year’s inaugural Black Tie Bingo. “Men dressed in tuxes or suits, and the women in their finest. Tons of prizes, gift certificates. And the food - the food was fabulous.’’

Players will vie for locally donated prizes, such as gift certificates to restaurants, jewelry, and a night at a bed and breakfast. But the evening’s not really gambling, Katz said.

Still, the cost to play, $50 per person, plus larger donations from event sponsors, will help people to do something important - keep warm. The money raised by the event goes to the interfaith council’s outreach program to provide help with fuel bills for local families in need.

“It’s an important cause,’’ said Joanne Moore, the senior center’s director. “To keep our community warm.’’

Event planners at the Duxbury Council on Aging, which sponsors the event along with the interfaith council, say the event is aimed at involving the entire community. While it takes place in the town’s handsome senior center, a source of local pride and a well-used facility since its construction 11 years ago, council chairwoman Pamela Campbell Smith pointed out that many of the activities held there are not just for seniors.

The popular Lifelong Learning Program, for example, offers college-style courses for all ages.

“Our board wanted to do something to benefit the entire community and not just senior citizens,’’ Smith said last week. “We’re trying to reach out to the whole community.’’

Black Tie Bingo as a fund-raiser for people who need help to keep warm came about because two of the Council on Aging members also belong to the interfaith council, the town’s clergy association.

“It was kismet,’’ said Smith. “We were talking. They said, ‘We have 90 applications for fuel.’ We sat there and looked at each other.’’

Having made fuel aid the raison d’etre for a winter event, council members began poking fun at the stereotype of elder citizens hunched over their bingo cards at their senior center. Member Matt Walsh suggested a black-tie version of the game.

“It’s not just your grandparents’ senior center,’’ Smith said. “We do things other than bingo. . . . So we’re going to have fun with bingo. We are going to get dressed to the nines.’’

Best clothing will be accompanied by some fine food. Island Creek Oysters, a Duxbury oyster farm, will supply 250 to 300 oysters. Local fishermen will come to the center and shuck them.

Since event planners are also looking for intergenerational participation as well, they have recruited young people to prepare appetizers, cut up vegetables, and make hummus for the hearty hors d’oeuvres part of the evening’s pleasures.

The teens will also manage the coat room, earning community volunteer hours toward their high school graduation requirement.

Beer and wine will accompany the food.

After the first half-dozen bingo games, the players will take a break and sample the dessert table, donated by the local bakery French Memories and by the chef and other volunteers from the Village at Duxbury, a senior retirement community that includes an assisted-living center and private residences.

“Everybody steps up,’’ Smith said.

Last year’s event packed in a full house of 130 elegantly garbed bingo players in the senior center’s meeting room. Altogether, the event raised more than $14,000 to help pay people’s heating bills. One hundred percent of the money raised goes back to the community.

The interfaith council’s outreach director, Kay Drake, administers the program and makes the grants. Last year the outreach program provided fuel assistance to 100 families, Katz said. Outreach also provides holiday food baskets.

“We have a budget of $60,000, part of which is fuel assistance,’’ Katz said. “This year we need to increase it to $75,000.’’

Duxbury residents need help paying heat bills for the same reason as people everywhere.

“It could be anyone down on his luck,’’ Katz said. “A lot of people are out of work. The economy is part of it. People are just in need.’’

The event’s celebrity callers include selectmen chairman Shawn Dahlen and school Superintendent Ben Tantillo.

Regardless of whose number comes up at the tables Saturday night, planners said, the entire community will win.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox2@gmail.com.