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The second Let’s Dance Sewickley! event planned Nov. 3 at the Edgeworth Club not only is a fundraiser for the Lazarus Center of Ambridge, but it also addresses several aspects of the nondenominational community service organization’s mission.

“Our mission at The Lazarus Center is to provide Christ-centered equipping for personal and community wholeness,” said Julie Guss, center executive director.

And, that means dealing with the body, soul and spirit.

“Dancing is using your body, and it lets the creative parts come out, that’s your mind,” she said. “We believe we were created in three parts, and we should care for all three and keep in balance.”

The event, which also will benefit Sewickley Community Center, is a dance competition featuring “area community personalities” and judges, most from the Sewickley area.

The event involves hundreds of volunteer hours, Guss said. The instructors and dancers all volunteer their time. About $14,000 was raised last year with $1,400 going to the Sewickley Community Center.

Last year’s winners were Sewickley residents Hope Diggins, a Lazarus board member, and Mark Steffey for their hip-hop performance.

This year, all competitors will perform ballroom dances and have been paired with or instructed by several professional dance teachers.

The featured dancers are Gomer Smith; Joanna Littlefield; Andrew Wormsely; Dr. Christy McCandless, an amateur dance competitor who was a judge last year; Mara Mclain; Simquita Bridges; Christa Oelhaf; Kathy Evans Palmisano, who formerly performed on the show “Dance Fever”; Lou Guarino; and Lori Otto, whose husband, Mark, is Lazarus Center board president and was a dancer last year.

The judges are Veronica Guarino, Michele Michaels of WDVE, 102.5 FM, Charena Swann and Caroline Conlan.

Four trophies will be awarded. The judges will present a winning couple with a technical dance award, and one of the other couples will win the audience-choice award.

A silent auction with more than 30 items also will be featured, including a jersey, football card and football signed by Franco Harris; a football signed by Dan Marino; several helmets signed by Shane Conlon; watches retailed at $300 from Lewis Anthony Jewelry of Upper St. Clair; and several spa and household items.

Dinner will be a choice of filet mignon or chicken fontina with lemon mushroom sauce. Each participant will receive two free drink tickets. Hors d’oeuvres and dessert also will be served.

Several people who have received help from the Lazarus Center will speak at the event, Guss said, including herself.

She said last year’s event was successful not only for the money that is raised but because it drew attention to the Lazarus Center and its programs.

The center will use proceeds for operating expenses, classes, development of new curriculums and updating class manuals focusing on sexual abuse and violence, Guss said.

The center recently was approved as an official charity sponsor with the Pittsburgh Marathon in May next year not only to raise money for the center but to “encourage folks to keep fit,” Guss said.

A variety of other classes and programs also are offered at the Lazarus Center to help people to get over issues, stumbling blocks and obstacles that stop them from becoming more productive workers, mothers and wives, Guss said.