Kat Holick didn't have time to open last week's issue of The Newtown Bee before people were telling her that she was pictured in it.

The diminutive traffic agent, popular for her perpetual smiles and a Facebook page that only hosts positive messages, Kat was one of three people in a photograph that ran in last week's presentation of the column "The Way We Were."  At the time, the photo was only identified with the date 1982 scribbled on the back of it.

The column, a popular feature that offers readers a look back at Newtown news of 25, 50, 75, and 100 years ago, culled from s files, includes one photo each week. The column of December 9 was one where a photo was available, but details about it were scarce.The Bee'

"Wearing Wilderness Therapy T-shirts, these young people are noted only as 'three Newtowners Kathy, Pamela, Robert' on the back of this photograph from The Bee archives, date 1982," the photo caption told readers. "Where there were and why remains a mystery, 34 years later."

Shortly after the issue of hit the stands last week, readers recognized the smile on the young woman on the right in the photo. It is the same smile that greets hundreds of drivers, and thousands of children, as its owner directs vehicles safely into and out of Newtown High School, Hawley School, and St Rose of Lima School most weekdays during the school year. The smile, the eyes, the confident stance: the mystery female on the right is clearly Kathy "Kat" Ballwig Holick.

"I got home and there were all these posts on my Facebook page," Kat said Monday, December 12. Stopping in to The Bee office on a break between Hawley and St Rose traffic duty that afternoon, Kat had a folder filled with clippings from the Wilderness School she and the other two people in the photo - from 1983, she pointed out, not 1982, as had been incorrectly noted on the newspaper's photo - had returned from when they were featured in an article that summer.

The folder also held the diploma she was given at the end of Wilderness School.

"It was July 11, 1983," said Kat. "That's one of those great days in my life I can always remember."

Faded photocopies of additional newspaper articles and notes spilled out of the folder, as did a paper Kat wrote about the summer adventure and its lessons during her senior year at Newtown High School. She had been at Wilderness School during the summer break between her junior and senior years.

"Wilderness School was a program that helps children who have problems," she said this week. Kat's parents were going through a rough divorce, she said. The dissolution of that marriage, and a few other issues, were having a very negative effect on the high school student.

In 1983, a feature was written about the three young adults - Kathy Ballwig, then 16; Pam Meister, 15; and Robert Richter, 14 - who had just returned home from an adventure that took them over parts of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

"Three Newtown teenagers returned home from a 20-day wilderness therapy program with mosquito bites, bruises and muscles which they point to with pride," Bee reporter Liz Wilson wrote. "It's almost as if they are savoring these outward signs of a challenging experience which, they tell us, has made considerable changes in their lives which are not visible."

Kat Holick still agrees with that assessment.

"The course teaches you how to survive within you," she said this week. "It had a true impact on my life. We were taught how to use tools in life to fix problems. We were taught to think, and not blindly swing at things when we're upset."

The three young adults from Newtown - who may have departed from and returned to the same hometown, but were put into three different groups during the run of the school - spent their time outdoors, learning how to survive with a minimal amount of food, follow maps, work with people they just met, and much more.

"Between that we went rock climbing, canoeing, hiking," Kat added. "We were busy."

There were about 15 young adults in the program, Kat believes. Between all of the activities, the young adults learned some pretty important lessons.

"The T-shirts we wore had butterflies on them," Kat pointed out. "That image was part of the motto, which covered rebirth, growing into something more beautiful, and above all, believing in yourself.

"I still keep that going within me to this day," she added. "I have always believed in myself, no matter what others thought about me.

"I went into that program looking to be independent. I knew one day I would need to be on my own, and that program helped me," she said.

Wilderness School is affiliated with Outward Bound, and Kat continues to keep tabs on that program. She missed the last two reunions, but has attended many Wilderness School/Outward Bound gatherings, she said.

Last weekend, Wilderness School found its way into her modern day life, thanks to the messages and posts that were waiting for her online. Kat and Pam Meister, who "is still in the area," said Kat, were both tagged in a few posts that featured the picture from last week's newspaper.

"I really had a lot of fun over the weekend," she said. "People were messaging me from all over. That was really fun. It was great to see that picture, and to remember that program."