Mother holds benefit in memory of late daughter

COLUMBIA – Two years ago on Oct. 13, Lisa Forbis lost her 18-year-old daughter, Whitney Bentlage, in a fatal car accident.

Forbis chose to spend the past two years celebrating her daughter.

A continuation of that celebration will occur next month as a part of the Whitney Bentlage Memorial Benefit for the Ronald McDonald House.

The goal is to raise $25,000 to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House of mid-Missouri, and in exchange for the donation, a room will be named for Bentlage.

The benefit is going to be a fall festival, with games, foodand a silent auction. Football coaches and quarterbacks from Centralia, Ashland, Hallsville and Hickman high schools will be in dunking machines.

Bentlage’s family worked on behalf of the Ronald McDonald House, and Bentlage loved kids, Forbis said.

The benefit is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 3 at the Hallsville Fairgrounds in the LeMone Building.  There is no cost for the event, but tickets for individual activities will be sold, and a silent auction will be held to raise the money.

Forbis hopes to make the fall festival benefit an annual tradition to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities and to let her daughter know “she’s not forgotten.”