Three years ago, a group of gay friends dubbed themselves the Boys of Lawrenceville, hoping to connect with gays moving into the neighborhood. The group took its cue from a cluster of couples known as the Lawrenceville Urban Pioneer Society, who had formed a bond by rehabbing old houses and holding progressive dinners.

Boys' founder Jay Bernard wanted to take his brainchild a step further.

With a 100-name mailing list collected while schmoozing at public gatherings and businesses, he organized volunteers to stage the first Gourmet Spaghetti Dinner in 2004, which launched the Boys as a benevolent society. The dinner raised $2,000. The next year, proceeds doubled. Tomorrow night, the dinner returns after a one-year hiatus. Mr. Bernard, who was too ill last fall to organize it, died in May at 49 of stomach cancer.

Friends, both gay and straight, have rallied to restart the event. They expect to feed anywhere from 250 to 500 people. It runs from 6 to 10 p.m. at St. Matthew Parish's St. Kieran Church Hall, 5322 Carnegie St.

The event is dedicated to Mr. Bernard, whose funeral was a standing-room-only Mass at Our Lady of the Angels, where he worshipped. Proceeds will benefit the food pantry there and St. Matthew's St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Mr. Bernard's original fund-raising goal was to reopen the Leslie Park pool, which had closed during the city's funding crisis, said Bill Stanhope, who formerly co-owned Jay Design with Mr. Bernard and now is sole owner. But the Boys decided also to support neighborhood nonprofits that serve families and the poor.

They had another purpose, too.

"Jay wanted to break down some people's ideas of what gay people are," said Mr. Stanhope.

Diane Stokan grew up in Lawrenceville before spaghetti dinners became gourmet affairs, when gay residents probably took pains to avoid being known as such. "I would guess," she said, "because I certainly didn't know any."

Now retired, she is back in her childhood neighborhood, where her sister also moved from New York several years ago.

In some ways, Lawrenceville is still cranky and blue-collar, she said. "There is still resistance" to the transition that younger, gay, artistic residents bring, "but I think it's because of just never having interacted, not knowing.

"Lawrenceville is the thing we all care about in common," she said. The Boys "put a face on the [gay] label, and everything they do is to help."

Before he died, Mr. Bernard recruited support to keep the dinners going.

Susan Banahasky, an insurance professional and community activist, took over organizing it this year. Roger Levine, a teacher at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and a non-Boy, is making the spaghetti and sauces -- a marinara with meatballs, a vegetarian puttanesca, and a garlic and oils sauce with fresh vegetables and chicken broth. The dinner will include salad and pastries.

"I love the camaraderie, and the variety of people," he said. "Church people, secular, black, white, foreigners, new people, fifth-generation people. At one point, some Somalis walked in. Everyone is in it for the same thing -- the community."

Tickets for the Gourmet Spaghetti Dinner are $10 at the door, $8 if purchased before at any of the following stores: Jay Design, 4603 Butler St.; Perk Me Up, 4407 Butler St.; Dandelions, 4108 Butler St., and Who New?, 5156 Butler St.