Through the decades the Possible Dreams auction, the annual event that raises critically needed funds for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, has seen many notable moments — sometimes with notable people.

There was the year a bidding war broke out between two men over the chance for a private concert and a peanut butter sandwich with the singer-songwriter Carly Simon at her home in Vineyard Haven.

There was the year the late auctioneer and humorist Art Buchwald, in a spontaneous moment, auctioned off the hat he was wearing. It sparked a new annual tradition, not to mention raising a lot of money.

There was the year a high rolling woman bid up a trip for two to Vienna. As it turned out, on that particular evening she was not with her husband, who later found out and canceled the check.

Somehow it all became part of the fun.

“Even though you were on vacation, it was a way to give back,” Mr. Buchwald told the Gazette, speaking about the auction in an interview in 2006.

This year’s Possible Dreams Auction will be held Sunday under a tent at Winnetu Oceanside Resort overlooking South Beach in Edgartown.

Now in its thirty ninth year, the auction is named for the late Mr. Buchwald who died a decade ago. And there is no doubt that Art would be pleased to see that the auction has evolved into a new kind of event — less heavy on the celebrities, more geared toward the everyman which in many ways makes it more fun. The cost of entry is just $25, and there will be raffles, a silent auction and a super silent auction. The traditional paddle bidding for big ticket Dreams still takes place of course, and this year there are some great ones, including a VIP visit to a taping of the Late Night show with Seth Meyers and a week in St. Lucia, to name just two.

And if the traditions and notable moments have changed through the years, the need has only grown.

The auction is the principal annual fundraiser for Community Services, which under the leadership of executive director Julie Fay has done an admirable job of providing a safety net for the Island’s most vulnerable populations even as grants and government monies continue to shrink and the costs of providing services rise.

Unseen by many summer visitors who are fortunate enough to enjoy the sunnier side of the Vineyard, the agencies of Community Services deal as often with nightmares as dreams, helping Islanders with an array of needs from mental illness to early childhood intervention to domestic violence.

These are the real problems of a real community — and perhaps the best dream of all is that no need go unmet.

Supporting this effort, Art Buchwald used to say, is part of the unwritten compact between the Island’s haves and have nots.

“There is something about the Vineyard that binds us all together,” he once told the Gazette. “On the Vineyard the big question is not who you are but where you’ve been and why you’ve been there. Each thing, each moment has a meaning, a place, a trail you might have walked on. The Vineyard is an important part of everyone’s life who goes there, even when we’re not there.”

The helping hand reaches out on Sunday night. Come to the auction, bid high for your dreams and help Community Services live up to its name, as it has for the past fifty five years.