SPECIAL NEEDS ABILITIES DEER HUNTER
Humans habitually underestimate other humans. That’s why underdogs can be winners and that’s why people with disabilities often surprise us. Christopher Reichart of Berks County, Pennsylvania, is an enthusiastic 26-year-old white-tailed deer hunter. As a young man with Down syndrome, he’s an underdog. But he’s also an overcomer.
I first met Chris in 2019 when I spoke at a sportsman’s dinner in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, at High Point Baptist Chapel. The broad smile on his cherubic face says he is full of joy and eager to talk about things that make him happy. Deer hunting is one of those things.
It’s natural for a kid to want to be like his father, and Chris’s father Steven Reichart is an avid hunter. Most kids attend a hunter safety class, then buy a license and head to the woods with a dad or a mentor. Even though Chris achieved a high school diploma in a life skills program that qualified him for productive employment, the usual route into the ranks of hunters was closed.
Steve knew, even if he attended
