Youth Leaders Mark Return By MICHELLE BLUM WHEELING - Nearly a week after returning from a leadership camp, several Ohio County students are ready to go back again. Several of the students and junior counselors who attended the West Virginia Sheriff's Association Youth Leadership Academy met Thursday on the steps of the City-County Building in Wheeling with Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne, Circuit Clerk Brenda Miller, Magistrate Harry Racliffe and Sheriff's Cpl. Jude Bowman and Deputy Ron Meyer. Bowman and Meyer, resource officers in Ohio County schools, and Deputy John Haglock took part in the academy along with deputies from Boone, Cabell, Putnam, Berkeley, Raleigh, Pleasants and Mingo counties and a Huntington Police Department detective. Students who attended the Wheeling Police Department's Camp DEFY met last Friday for a celebration at St. Mark Lutheran Church shortly after their return from Camp Dawson in Pleasants County. Both week-long camps are designed to promote leadership among middle school students. "These kids are just awesome," said Burgoyne, who served as deputy commandant of the Youth Leadership Academy. According to Burgoyne, 25 Ohio County students attended the camp - two as senior counselors, eight as junior counselors and 15 as first-year cadets. Wheeling Police Cpl. Jim Braden said 32 students attended the camp at the West Virginia National Guard camp. Braden noted the students received congratulations from the National Guard for participation in a drill that involved a "dirty bomb" blast. Youth Academy junior counselors Jessica Ernest and Sara Jones said they plan on submitting applications to attend as senior counselors in 2005 just as soon as they're available. Ernest and Jones, who will be sophomores at Wheeling Park High School this fall, attended the camp for the first time in 2003. While Thomas E. Johnston, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, attended the ceremonies closing Camp DEFY last Friday, Kasey Warner, U.S. Attorney for the state's Southern District, was on hand for the Youth Academy graduation ceremonies.