“I feel like a celebrity,” said the boy whose glass is now back to half-full, reports NBC 7’s Dana Williams.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since 11-year-old Liam Rader learned one of life’s most difficult lessons.
“I don’t know why he would do it,” Rader told NBC 7. “It was just like, I didn’t know people could be so cruel.”
Rader has been selling lemonade in Ramona for more than a year to raise money for a dirt bike. He said he was always at the same corner, in the parking lot of a local business, and never had any issues until early September.
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Security video from that business captured the moment a silver pickup truck drives past the lemonade stand, then turns around and pulls up alongside it.
“About halfway through the video, you can see he picks the sign up, and he reads it,“ Kery Rader, Liam’s mother, said.
“In really big letters, it said 'Lemonade.' Below it, said, 'Small $1, large is $3. Saving for a dirt bike. Anything helps. Thank you' with a smiley face at the end," Liam added.
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The man tosses the sign, takes a quick look around, then loads the lemonade stand in the back of his truck and drives off.
Kery and her husband, Lee Rader, posted the video to social media hoping to find the man, but instead of learning his identity, they received more than they could have asked for. Kery told NBC 7 countless organizations and local businesses reached out asking to help Liam. One built him a brand new stand, another hand-crafted signage, a local high school made him a bench and Frazier Farms hand-squeezed dozens of cartons of lemonade for Liam to get back on his feet with.
“Like probably hundreds of dollars worth of stuff that they could have sold at their businesses and their choosing to take that time themselves and use their resources and do it for free all just to support our son,” Kery said, “and that’s amazing.”
Liam held a free lemonade stand, in partnership with San Diego-based radio station KSON, on Friday using all of the items he has received to say thank you to those who have helped him. At the event, he was recognized by the Ramona Chamber of Commerce and, to his surprise, received the dirt bike he had been raising money for as a gift from country artist Scotty McCreery.
“I love it,” Liam exclaimed when he ran over and sat on the bike for the first time.
“I think there’s a lot of lessons for him to have learned through this, but I’m glad there's some positive ones in there too,” Kery said.
Liam decided to donate any money he was given on Friday to 2 the Rescue Animal Sanctuary in Ramona.
NBC 7 reached out to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department about the investigation into the man seen taking the lemonade stand. They said the family has not filed a crime report, so they are not pursuing it for now. Kery added their reasoning behind that decision is that they feel the video has been seen around the community, and that is enough punishment for the person who has to live with what they did.
“There’s still hope in society,” Liam said.
