The sight at Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association (CMFCAA) on Sunday looked a little reminiscent of an Amish barn raising.
About 150 members of Freshwater Church in Jefferson City converged on CMFCAA for a one-day event that took on projects ranging from renovating a playground to partitioning toilets in the building, formerly a preschool.
It was all part of Freshwater's Labor for Your Neighbor program. Each year, the church picks a local agency with unfulfilled needs and dedicates a one-day building/renovation blitz there.
Workers built a handicapped-accessible sidewalk, and performed landscaping, flooring, painting, weeding, mulching and plumbing. They also took time to pack care bags for foster kids as the next school year approaches. Women in the church took over the agency's kitchen, preparing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and lettuce salads for the workers, among other thing.
"There's just a great need here," said Andy Roselius, the project leader of the event. "We have a tremendous group of people in our church who are always ready to step up and pitch in."
The help comes at a time when the agency is especially in need. Gov. Jay Nixon withheld a $400,000 line item in the state budget that mostly funds two key programs offered by the agency: Extreme Recruitment and 30 days to Family.
Extreme Recruitment works on the back end of foster care for kids who are hard to place over the age of 9, said DeAnna Alonso, executive director of CMFCAA.
The 30 Days to Family program works on the front end of foster care. The program assists in the search and engagement of a child's relatives and kin within 30 days of a child entering the foster care system.
The 30 Days to Family program started nationally in 2011, and in its first year 71.4 percent of the children were placed with relatives/kin at the conclusion of services, according to the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition's website.
Alonzo said the programs will save the state between $1 million and $1.5 million annually.
One of the rooms designated for the programs was being updated by the volunteers on Sunday, but funding for the programs are on hold.
"Foster care is temporary," she said. "We, this community, needs to understand that whatever it takes for the security and safety of these kids, we need to move forward and get these kids into homes, so we're waiting. We're ready to rock 'n' roll.
Alonso was grateful for the church's help. Now, she said, the agency needs the governor's help.
"I have no doubt the governor wants to take care of his kids in Missouri, no doubt," she said. "But what we need him (Nixon) to understand is they're waiting for him. He is their father right now, after all. He gave the OK for them to come into the Missouri system. So they're waiting on their dad."