Several Butler County high school student leaders have been selected to attend the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Ranch in Colorado this summer.

Sophomores from five Butler County high schools — Hamilton, Fairfield, Badin, Lakota East and Lakota West — have been a part of the intensive, weeklong camp in the mountains every summer since 1998.

“The purpose is to bring out young leaders between their sophomore and junior years of high school to go through a comprehensive training, and then go back into their community,” ranch co-founder Colleen Braid said in a 2011 interview. “That way, they have two years of high school to make a difference.”

Local students who have been selected for the leadership event are:

Fairfield High School

• Scott Vinson
• Kyle Robertson
• Madison Coburn
• Alexis “Lexie” Wahoff

Lakota East High School

• Jasmyn Pearl
• Keeley Aten
• Abbie VanFossen
• Hayden Senger
• Shane O’Connor
• Jacob King

Lakota West High School

• Lara Aull
• Jamie Cogan
• Austin Allinger
• Cody Krause

Badin High School

• Jake Miller (of Fairfield)
• Chance Petri (of Hamilton)
• Liz Marot (of Fairfield)
• Annika Pater (of Hamilton)

Hamilton High School

• Haylee Fraizer
• Adam Robbins
• Alex Sprague
• Tori Yokers

Colleen and Ken Braid founded the ranch in 1994 after the death of their son, Kyle, who was a sophomore when he took his own life. He began using steroids under the pressure to be “bigger, stronger, faster” for his high school football team, and the drugs led to severe mood swings.

Believing that a program such as the one they developed might have prevented their son’s suicide, the Braids began inviting students from selected high schools, first in Florida, then Ohio, Illinois and Colorado.

Five schools in Ohio were chosen because Mr. Braid was in the door business and knew David Pease of Pease Industries in Fairfield.

“He heard about what we were doing and wanted kids in Butler County involved in the program,” Mrs. Braid said. “He picked five schools where his employees had students.”

The students go through an intensive selection process that includes writing a series of four essays, gathering letters of recommendation and interviews with faculty advisers and students who have been through the program.

“The number of alumni that are in the program who come back like to make sure there are opportunities for others to go,” said HHS principal Doug Leist.

Braid students typically become active in their district’s character education program, providing mentoring for younger students and leading anti-bullying and other programs.