Royal Family Kids fundraiser gala Saturday at Teeland Middle School

WASILLA — Royal Family KIDS Mat-Su Club (Mat-Su RFK) hosts its fourth-annual Fundraiser Gala Saturday at Teeland Middle School.

The semi-formal dress event is organization's largest fundraiser of the year and will include live music provided by the band Element 47, hors d'oeuvres and desserts, live and silent auctions and a masquerade for the young and young-at-heart.

"During the evening, we get the opportunity to see and hear first-hand what a difference Royal Family KIDS has made in the hearts and lives of those who have been impacted by our camp, club and mentoring programs," said Rachel Olson, RFK Mat-Su director. "The annual gala is our main fundraiser and contributions allow us to continue to touch the lives of precious children in the Mat-Su Valley."

RFK is a national, non-profit network of camps and children's clubs that provide mentoring for abused, abandoned and neglected children in the foster care system. Using a multi-denominational church-based approach, the idea was founded in 1985 and has grown to more than 150 camps with about 6,000 volunteers in the United States and throughout the world. The first Alaska RFK outreach began in 2008.

The most recent statistics for Alaska show there are approximately 1,800 children ages 6-12 in foster care with about 550 additional waiting for adoption. The total number of children in foster care statewide is more than 5,600 with more than 1,500 in foster care waiting for adoption. RFK operates three camps and one club in the state. In addition to the Valley's Camp 310 and Club 62, RFK operates a second in Anchorage and one more in Kenai.

This year's summer camps include an overnight camp slated for June 23-29 and a three-week day camp from July 8-28. Camps are run with a 1:2 ratio, one counselor, called a ‘cousin,’ for every two campers. The average camp serves 45-50 children each summer. Organizers estimate in order to reach all the kids eligible to enroll, an additional 33 camps are needed in Alaska alone.

In addition to this summer's camps, the Mat-Su group plans to implement a trust-based relational intervention (TBRI) program this year. TBRI is an award-winning model of trauma-informed care developed by Texas Christian University's Karyn Purvis Child Development Institute (TCUKPCD). Its core tenets focus on connecting, empowering and correcting.

Medical data supports the findings that the impact of trauma deprives children of proper brain development making it difficult for them to regulate behavior. This often results in varying degrees of frustration for both the child and families trying to care for them.

Plans are for the Mat-Su club to provide a community-wide trauma-informed training workshop Friday, June 23 featuring Dr. Mandy Howard, a TBRI specialist. Sponsored by Alaska Children's Trust Fund and Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the workshop will provide all attending foster families with six hours of training credit. Foster families, child welfare professionals and community members are invited to attend.

TBRI will also be introduced to the RFK Mat-Su camp program. Partnering with TCUKPCD, current students as well as graduates studying the TBRI model will help launch an integrated camp program.

Since its inception, RFK Mat-Su has provided its camp experience for more than 125 foster children. It's newly implemented one-to-one weekly mentoring program connected 20 kids with individual mentors to date. Organizers estimate RFK Mat-Su needs to raise a minimum of $70,000 to host the four-week camps program and additional funds are needed for the fall and spring mentoring programs.

The evening kicks off at 6 p.m. at Teeland which is located at 2788 North Seward Meridian in Wasilla. For more information on the Gala, call 907-982-9645.