Taco feed raises $2,600 for HAMC cancer care gift card program

Submitted Photo Duane Drader of Henry’s 90 Wt. Ribs and Brisket, left, presents a check to his wife, Karen Drader, of Heart of America Medical Center’s cancer care infusion center. To their right is Kari Burkhartsmeier, acute care unit secretary.
Who doesn’t love tacos?
That’s a question Heart of America Medical Center asked on social media recently.
Not too many people would answer, “I don’t” to that question, judging by the amount of money a taco feed raised at Heart of America Medical Center’s gazebo Nov. 4.
The fact the tacos had a variety of tasty fillings prepared by Duane Drader of Henry’s 90-Wt. Ribs and Brisket helped, too.
“We had a build-your-own taco bar,” Drader said. “We had taco meat and brisket, pork, shrimp and salmon to build tacos with.”
Drader is married to Karen Drader, a nurse at HAMC’s cancer care infusion center
Together with the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm for HAMC, Drader organized the taco feed, setting it up in the gazebo on the hospital grounds. The structure is heated for year-round use.
Drader set up a separate fundraiser in Towner at the Towner Senior Center.
At both fundraisers, Drader offered tacos with a choice of meats or fish and extras such as rice, guacamole, veggies and sour cream for free will donations.
The taco feeds collected $2,600 in total donations, all of which will pay for $100 gas cards for chemotherapy patients served by Heart of America Medical Center and HAMC Johnson Clinics.
Drader said he chose the fundraiser as a way to give back to the community. He’s used his cooking skills to help others in the past, too.
“I used to for the past five years cook meals for a couple of families who were going through a rough time. I thought this year I’d try to do something different to help out more people,” Drader said.
Drader said he enjoys helping his wife of 37 years out and enjoys helping people in general. He said he’s been serving up barbecue with from his food truck “for seven or eight years. I run a repair shop during the week,” Drader said. “Barbecuing is my hobby.”
“I go to a few events in Rugby and I do events in Towner and get some regular catering work, too,” Drader said of Henry’s 90-Wt Ribs and Brisket. “I’ve done weddings before. I do this year-round.”
Karen Drader said the taco feeds were fun, “but I wasn’t there. I was busy with my patients. I didn’t get to go to either one of them.”
“When Duane was all done for the day, he brought me a taco,” Karen Drader said. “I told him that was what he should do because I would not get out there because it was a day I had a lot of chemo patients. So, they were my priority.”
Karen Drader said chemo patients often don’t have much of an appetite, but “some patients who see the nurse practitioner who comes from Altru went to the taco feed. It was good that some of them went and the community went. Lots of employees went. I sent a message to the cafeteria telling them they might not need to make as much food that day,” she added with a laugh.
“The (hospital) foundation actually goes and buy the gas cards with the donations that we get,” Karen Drader explained. “The Darryl Kuhnhenn Run helps support that a lot, too. The American Cancer Society helps us with gas cards as well. There are a lot of cancer patients out there and they need help. It’s expensive to drive. Even if we help them, they still have to go to appointments with oncologists in Minot or Bismarck or wherever at least once a month. It gets expensive.”
“We get patients from as far away as Belcourt or Dunseith, Rolla, Rolette and that area, just because it’s easier for them and they don’t have to drive (to larger cities for chemotherapy infusions),” Karen Drader added. “So, with the gas card program, they get a $100 gas card every calendar year. A calendar year goes from January to January.”
“I give the cards to the patients,” Karen Drader added. Kari Burkhartsmeier, acute care unit secretary keeps track of the cards and makes sure everyone gets one for the year. “Kari returns the records to the foundation so they know where the money went and we can account for it. She’s a big part of it. She keeps me organized,” Karen Drader said.
“We buy cards from gas stations throughout the city, Harper Oil, Arco and Cenex so we can spread the business all over town,” she added.
“The patients are really close to my heart,” Karen Drader said. “That’s why my husband decided to do this.”
Karen Drader said her husband made sure to sanitize the hospital’s gazebo before and after the taco feed. The building, which is not considered a part of the hospital building, is also used for long-term care center patient visits.
After the taco feeds in Rugby and Towner, Bottineau’s St. Andrews Medical Center asked Henry’s 90 Wt. Ribs and Brisket to help raise money for new hospital beds at the facility Nov. 17. Duane Drader said he would bring his food truck to the hospital.
“My sister’s the director of nursing in Bottineau and her friend, Connie Hahn is the marketing director and foundation director. She’s the one who contacted my husband to do it, so he said he would do it,” Karen Drader said.
Duane Drader said he heard some positive comments about his tacos at the fundraisers. “I’m sure I’ll make tacos again some time,” he said.
His food truck often comes to events in Rugby. No trips to Rugby are scheduled for the near future, he said, “but if something comes up, I’ll be over there, I’m sure.”