After a three-year lapse, the Hearts of Gold Ball is back this year. The Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Assn. is hosting the ball May 6 at the Wakarusa Corporate Center, 4910 Corporate Centre Drive.

All money raised will benefit the building of a new emergency department at LMH. Event co-chair Jan McCullough said the emergency room is overloaded, seeing about 30,000 patients a year, so the hospital needs the money to expand.

“With that many people coming through emergency they’re really overloaded,” McCullough said. “We get no money from the county, the city or government. We are a self-supporting hospital, and we have to work hard to keep it pumping.”

The last event in 2003 raised more than $440,000 for the Bob Billings Cardiac Observation Unit.

Tickets for the event cost $125 for individuals and $1,500 for a reserved table for 10.