Poe, who will perform in his MX2 show plane at the Vectren Dayton Air Show this weekend, takes youth welfare seriously. In a way, it goes back to Poe’s son, Ryan, who died eight years ago from his heroin addiction. He was 20.
Initially, Poe didn’t see a way to help other young people avoid the same fate. He wasn’t sure teens would listen, and the subject was painfully fresh.
“It’s so personal when you hang that out there,” Poe said before his flight with Kyle from Dayton International Airport. “And I still have this thing about protecting my son.”
But when he talked with a young audience in California a few years after Ryan’s death, he found to his surprise there was a connection.
Poe, an Idaho native, talks to youths about how he worked as a “hillbilly” teen to save $2,000 to first earn his pilot’s license 36 years ago, and how he found his life’s work in aerobatic flying. He encourages listeners to think about how they can achieve their own goals. “I talk to them about my son,” Poe said. “And then I drop the bombshell.”
Poe’s audiences are often shocked when they learn of Ryan’s death, he said. “For some of these kids, this is going to make the difference for them.”
Kyle was first-place winner in the “Elevate Your Life” essay contest, a project of the Ryan J. Poe Foundation, which Poe started in his son’s honor. Kyle’s essay focused on his desire to become a bush pilot and wildlife officer in Alaska.
“That’s my dream,” Kyle said.
As her son was being strapped into Poe’s show plane, Tamara Matt watched and grinned ear to ear. Poe would have it no other way.
“It starts taking on a life of its own,” Poe said of the joy of flying.
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