Head Start grad Reece Katterhenry made the trip to the BMV for the rite of passage so many 16-year-olds look forward to; he was going to test for his driver’s license.
Weighing a bit heavier on his mind, though, was the larger challenge coming Thursday evening when he planned on completing his first solo flight at the Huntingburg Airport. He was originally supposed to take off on his own Tuesday evening. But his flight instructor, Tony Rhodes, had to postpone the solo flight due to the weather.
With the cancellation, Reece lost the opportunity to boast that he was licensed to travel the open skies before he could drive to school. Boasting isn’t really his style anyway, according to mom René Katterhenry.
She was surprised he had taken on the challenge of getting his pilot’s license at all. He’s loath to even approach ladders due to an active fear of heights.
But, last October, when the little single-engine Piper Warrior took off with Rhodes at the stick, the moment the wheels were free from the tarmac, Reece knew he wanted to learn how to fly. More than that, as the gray line receded below and the sky opened up, he saw his future in front of him.
René has always strived to give all of her children opportunities to experience and learn. When Reece, Logan or Lexi have an interest in something, she sees it as her responsibility to water those seeds of interest and see what blooms.
So Reece started meeting up with Tony every other Tuesday.
That’s always been her goal with Reece and his brother, Logan. The pair ended up in her home when she was in her 20s after they were removed from their biological home by the Division of Family Services. Neglect and other issues were obvious. Logan was underdeveloped, and it was also apparent that four-and-a-half-year-old Reece had been taking care of his younger brother as well as a pre-kindergartener could.
“I think I needed them more than they needed me,” she said about the boys’ entry into her young life.
After two and a half long years of fostering the boys, 27-year-old René was finally able to adopt them. On October 26, 2011, they rounded out her growing family of four that now included a younger sister, Lexi, who had just entered the world a few months earlier on August 31.
Neither boy was unscathed by those early years of neglect, and for René, it’s important to note that both have overcome deficits to achieve what they have in spite of those setbacks.
Now, Reece is ready to continue training for his private pilot’s license, with plans to attend Purdue and become a commercial pilot and flight instructor.
This article first appeared in the DuBois County Free Press on September 8, 2023