The American Heart Association’s annual Taste of the Teche is scheduled and tickets are selling quickly.

Dinners are $35 a plate are being served from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Cyr-Gates Community Center in the City Park.

Darlene Barras, a volunteer with the event, said 30 restaurants are participating, each bringing something different from desserts to gumbos.

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The event raises money for The American Heart Association, a volunteer-based organization.

Barras said 35 percent of the nation’s deaths are caused by heart disease and strokes, adding they are the No. 1 and No. 3 causes of death in Acadiana, Louisiana and the nation.

Thursday’s event includes a raffle, at $50 a ticket, for a pair of one-carat diamond earrings worth $2,800.

Silent and live auctions will take place. Two of the main items available in the live auction are a painting done especially for the event by Vergie Banks, a Lafayette-born artist, and a football signed by 36 members of the LSU football team. The organization is trying to raise $15,000.

Regional Director of the American Heart Association Kallie Barras said 500 tickets were available initially and 350 have been sold already.

“The people on the committees have done an outstanding job preparing,” she said.