Transitions program helps kids after foster care

BriAnna Boney, left, and her Transitions program mentor Mindy Ulstad, right, talk about the close bond the two have formed during an interview at the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center in Jefferson City on Thursday.
BriAnna Boney, left, and her Transitions program mentor Mindy Ulstad, right, talk about the close bond the two have formed during an interview at the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Resource Center in Jefferson City on Thursday.

BriAnna Boney is use to making changes and, sadly enough, to having few steadily reliable and helpful people in her life. As a teen who "did not get along with my father," Boney was placed in foster care and lived in six different foster homes in three years.

When she became involved with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association, she found a place that was there to do for her, and help her.

This is the third year the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association will sponsor a fundraising event, the Forget Me Not Gala. Since 2009, CMFCAA has served 67 families and more than 200 children throughout central Missouri. Agency programs include the Begin-Again Backpacks for children entering foster care, Transitions for high school seniors, the boys and girls clothing closet for foster and adoptive youth, and the food distribution program for foster and adoptive families.

The association also provides parent training services, sponsors respite events for member families, and offers a variety of assistance services through the volunteer-staffed Resource Center in Jefferson City at 1119 Jefferson St.

The Forget Me Not Gala is scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m., Tuesday at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.

Tickets are $35 per person or $60 per couple. Tickets can be purchased by calling (573) 298-0258.