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JEFFERSON CITY, MO. -- It's been almost a week since a woman was swept into the Missouri River.

Troopers said 31-year-old Sara Giboney went underwater around 1:30 Friday morning.

A friend tried to assist the woman, but wasn't able to bring her back to shore.

Thursday night Giboney's family and friends met at the Noren Boat ramp to release balloons in memory of the missing woman.

Giboney's friend Cole Robbins recited a poem at the memorial:

“Sarah's so kind and sweet,
Our princess always,
For the strong, for the weak,
In our hearts our love is deep,
The girl we've loved all these years,
Whether happy or full of tears,
Day or night, winter or fall,
Friend or foe,
To sara it didn't matter at all,
To sara we are family,
To us we'll remember her as the angel that protects us all.”

One Jefferson City woman organized the event so her 4-year-old daughter, Carissa, could say goodbye.

"She just wants to say goodbye, to say I miss you and I love you," organizer Kay Mushi said. "It's touching, it's touching to see so many people come out for such a great person who deserves so much love and to see it, it's tangible, it's tangible here."

At 7 p.m. friends gathered on the hill, some with messages written on their balloons and most with tears in their eyes.

"She was like a sister to a lot of us, sometimes a mom to the younger part of us," Robbins said.

Everyone stood and watched as colorful balloons peppered the blue sky, celebrating the life of Sara Giboney.

The highway patrol said the search for Giboney's body is now focused in St. Charles.

Crews are doing surface checks with boats and a plane and will continue their search until Friday.

If her body is not found, the search will moved over the weekend to an undetermined location.

The water patrol says the river's swift current and elevated water level have made the search difficult.