Though she no longer manages the Tower Avenue Chevron where she began handing out free meals on holidays to anyone who wanted one on Thanksgiving Day 2022, Leah Rader will still be serving up free meals on Christmas Day.
She’ll do so at her new place of employment — Gather Church in Centralia.
On Wednesday, Dec. 25, Rader, along with family and friends, will hand out meals at the Gather Cafe from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until the food is gone. The Gather Cafe is located at 408 W. Main St. in Centralia.
Meals will consist of a breakfast of eggs, sausage, pancakes and cookies with coffee and water to drink.
This Christmas meal event will be called “Breakfast for Blake,” in honor of her late brother-in-law.
A mother of three, Rader is also a Lewis County Drug Court graduate and continues to help advocate for recovery and spread awareness about the dangers of substance abuse.
Last year, Rader’s brother-in-law, Blake Hansen, died after relapsing and suffering an overdose.
He entered the Drug Court program in June 2022.
“(It’s) sort of a memorial breakfast for my brother-in-law who we lost to a fentanyl overdose in December of last year,” Rader said.
Created in 2004, Lewis County Drug Court is a voluntary program for addicts charged with a felony, according to Drug Court Program Manager Stephanie Miller.
The program targets high need and high risk offenders with a poor prognosis for success on their own. It aids them with structure and support using a three-phase recovery program.
Drug Court lasts a minimum of 16 months, with most participants graduating after 19 to 22 months.
To graduate, a Drug Court participant must have a full-time job, stable housing, complete recommended treatment, be clean for at least six months, in the program for at least 16 months, have a sober mentor and pay any court-ordered fines and restitution stemming from their case, Miller added.
Once a person graduates, their charges are dismissed.
Rader graduated from Drug Court in 2020 and has now been clean from hard drugs for more than six years.
