‘A mission meant to be’
Colleen and Ken Braid had a world of hurt ahead of them.
Instead of retreating into their own despair after their 16-year-old son, Kyle, impulsively took his own life after secretly using steroids on the advice of a football coach to get bigger and stronger, the Braids got proactive.
A mere three weeks after their only child’s death they founded the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation with a goal of creating school and community leaders who make wise, considered decisions in the face of adversity.
“It was a mission meant to be,” Colleen Malany Braid said while putting her elliptical trainer through its paces in her Las Vegas home.
She and Ken Braid — a 1969 graduate of Hinsdale Central, where he captained both the football and basketball teams — have since divorced but together remain devoted to the JKB Leadership Foundation.
For several years we’ve published the names of the local sophomore student-athletes who have won leadership training scholarships at the JKB Ranch in Colorado, thanks to Colleen and Naperville Central’s Barry Baldwin, who has been on the JKB board of directors since 2008. Other directors include Naperville Central athletic director Marty Bee, Naperville residents Robert Many and Paul Tanzillo and York graduate Brian Cassidy.
It’s been awhile since we got Colleen herself on the phone. Since the foundation was formed in 1994, she’s seen 17 classes of high school kids, nearly 3,000 of them, go through the leadership training on the 160-acre ranch in Villa Grove, Colo.
Ironically, had her son not taken his life, she wouldn’t have felt the need to devote herself to this cause, which in May 2007 earned her the University of Illinois Alumni Association Humanitarian Award.
“They wouldn’t be in my life if Kyle was still in my life,” she said. “It’s a blessing to my life, that so many kids have made such an impactful difference and have been so positively influential not only in their own schools but in their feeder schools and communities — people that have become more understanding of others and more giving to others.
“They’re more philanthropic, they think more about others, they’re more service-oriented in their lives. That’s what you hope happens, but when it does happen it’s just so much more meaningful.”
Early attendees of the JKB Ranch, like former Naperville North football star John Koranda who went in 1997, the first time it was open to Chicago-area students (the Braids started it in 1996 in Florida, where they then lived) are now in their early 30s.
Through discussion, activities and coaching the students gain leadership skills they can then bring back to their respective schools for their junior and senior years.
Naperville Central students, for example, enlist other athletes in school to donate blankets to hospitalized children, or help in adaptive physical education, Malany Braid said. Koranda, who helped start Naperville North’s JKB program, as an adult went on to assist disaster relieve efforts in Louisiana and Thailand.
On an alternating schedule from June through August boys from a variety of schools will come to Colorado one week, girls the next.
“We’re crazy but we’re not stupid,” Malany Braid said.
She noted the residuals of the training include everything from small acts of kindness to “pretty monumental things.” She said graduates of the program have stepped in to help others who have contemplated ending their own life.
Malany Braid remains in contact with the students who went to Colorado in the program’s first few years.
“It’s a great network,” she said. “We suffer through tragedies, but there are also the good things, too.”
In no particular order, these are the local sophomores who earned 2012 leadership training scholarship:
St. Francis: Mike Andelbradt, Claire O’Donnell, Maggie Webb, Nick Vilimek.
Hinsdale Central: Shelby Parsons, Matt Santulli, Paxton Gammie, Betsy Morgan.
Naperville North: DeSean Brown, Maria McDaniels, Taylor Arenson, Luke Landiak.
Glenbard West: Sarah Park, Maddie Lupori, Andrew Vogg, Jack Barker.
Downers Grove North: Brian Grippando, Micah Pfotenhauer, Mary Doro, Nick Bonanno.
Wheaton Warrenville South: Brian Summers, Maggie Dansdill, Alex Immekus, Jake Schultz.
York: Niall O’Brien, Joe Helton, Rachel Iverson, Caitlin Blum.
Naperville Central: Ben Border, Jake Stadelman, Allie Ciha, Jillian Murphy, Claire Savard, Kristina Altuve.
Hinsdale South: Mary Claire Ladd, Anthony Riskus, Maya Thompson, Giancarlo Cianelli.
Downers Grove South: Jack Ebersold, Erin Gentile, Melissa Gorman, Jimmy Kruse.
Hoop it up
Congratulations to Fenton’s Taylor Pugliese and Glenbard South’s Theresa Scheet for making it to the final round of 32 in the Class 3A Three-Point Showdown in Normal.
Also to Wheaton North’s Maddie Baillie, Naperville North’s Kathleen Hahne, York’s Megan Holmes and West Chicago’s Allie Tapanes, who reached Redbird Arena in Class 4A. Baillie nearly made the final round of four with her 10 baskets in the preliminary round, then another 6 in a tiebreaker.
Thursday at Carver Arena in Peoria a couple boys among local Class 2A teams will shoot in the preliminary round of the Three-Point Showdown: Immaculate Conception’s Brian Harvey, Timothy Christian’s Tyler VanderBrug.
Aurora Christian advanced two shooters: Ryan McQuade and Hayden McNelis.
Today, Panama City; tomorrow, the World Cup
Waubonsie Valley graduate and soccer star Vanessa DiBernardo, in her first start of the CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s Championship, scored a goal Tuesday in a 6-0 rout of host Panama. She found the goal in the 45th minute on a shot right through the legs of the Panama goalkeeper. DiBernardo, a midfielder, added an assist on a corner kick to make the score 5-0.
The Americans, who improved to 3-0 in group play without allowing a goal, advance to Friday’s semifinals against Mexico. The tournament in Panama City concludes March 11. Both finalists and the third-place team qualify for the 2012 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan.
DiBernardo, daughter of former United States international star and Waubonsie Valley boys soccer coach Angelo DiBernardo, was selected to the U-20 team’s 20-player roster on Feb. 21. A University of Illinois sophomore from Naperville, Vanessa DiBernardo led the Illini with 17 goals and 39 points, adding 5 assists while earning honors as Big Ten midfielder of the year and National Soccer Coaches Association of America second-team All-America.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com