Gabryelle Deitch shovels dirt to build pathway from the road to the World War I monument she is restoring at Spring Hill Cemetery. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

Gabryelle puts the finishing touches on a bench she constructed. (Photo submitted by Gabryelle Deitch)

Gabryelle’s family has not only a long history of military service but also has police and fire service. Her father and brother were both served in the military and as firefighters. She is currently a cadet with the Wellsville Volunteer Fire Department and hopes to continue on with firefighting when she ages out of the cadet program.

Gabryelle originally decided in April 2024 to approach the Village and the VFW about restoring the monument for personal reasons. In August 2024, the restoration became her senior capstone project for Columbiana County Career Technical Center, where she is a landscape student.

According to Gabryelle, landscape students tent to do water features, benches and different things like that. But she knew in the summer that the memorial is what she wanted to do, and it’s the type of project her certifications are in.

“This was not going to be a grade, and it was not going to be a part of it,” Gabryelle said. “I did not want to build a bench just to build a bench. I knew I could do something better. If I got a good grade, so be it, but its more the meaning the behind it.”

Gabryelle recalls having gone to the cemetery with her father to do some landscape work and seeing the red, white and blue memorial –how it piqued their interest because they love anything red, white and blue.

She remembered seeing the disrepair the memorial had fallen into with bricks falling apart, weeds growing about it and large cracks in it.

‘The thoughts behind it in 1929 were pure but it stopped getting the love it needed and to me the way it looked t was disrespectful,” Gabryelle said.

She noted a concern of someone from outside of Wellsville who may come to the cemetery and see the memorial and question the way the village treats its memorials.

It was a long journey for Gabryelle to get the memorial to the point where she is now making progress with it.

She approached the village in April 2024 but didn’t know at that time it was going to be her senior capstone project in August of 2024.

According to Gabryelle, the village was going to fix the brick-and-mortar portion of the memorial that April and have it completed by the fall.

Then came discussions among the village administration and council over whether to tear the memorial down or repair it. For some time, it looked like the village may tear it down.

Gabryelle said she was getting inducted into the NHS and looked at her mom and started crying and said to her, “they are tearing it down.”

“It was a long fight to push them to this point, but the people I had behind me helped a lot,” Gabryelle said. “Aaron Smith, Wellsville council member; and Jeff Cope; Wellsville village administrator; played major roles in helping me with this project.”

Fire Chief Barry Podwel was amazing through the tedious process and her dad, and the other firefighters continue to encourage her even when she started to feel it might be a lost cause. Her teacher even suggested she look at doing something else just in case.

“It’s a historical monument. It was from 1929 during the war. I just couldn’t see it being torn down,” Gabryelle said. “It was beautiful in the images that I could see. To be able to put them into play now, its humbling, its more than anything I could dream of.”

The Wellsville Village Council last month gave the go-ahead for the restoration to proceed and hired a contractor to do all the brick work. So, Gabryelle set to work preparing the memorial for restoration, working at the monument in rain or shine between her time spent at school and at work. She has over 30 hours invested in on-site work and many more hours spent in the planning stages.

With fewer than 20 school days left until her graduation, Gabryelle faced another setback with the project –vandals damaged the newly-rebuilt monument. The crew returned to fix the damage and now she is ready to proceed with her part of the project which includes repainting the memorial back to the original red, white and blue, adding a walkway from the road to the monument and putting a bench she constructed at the site. She painted a soldier and the words “We solemnly swear “on the bench which will sit at a 45-degree angle to the monument.

She said there is a part of her that worries she could put all the time and work into the memorial just to have it vandalized again.

She is hopeful the project she began at the age of 16 will be finished in time for her graduation

Gabryelle pointed to a gravesite and said it was the grave of a World War II veteran looking towards the memorial.

“I walk throughout here and I see these World War II veterans that watched these kids do this, watch these kids laugh, giggle and do all this stuff,” Gabryelle said. “They threw trash we think, because there is trash all through here and 210 gravestones were torn down at the same time. I’m worried but you can’t keep fearing because you are never going to get stuff down in this town. If I let fear hold me back, I would not have approached the VFW and the Village.”

The Wellsville VFW is supplying the paint for Gabryelle to paint the memorial.

Gabryelle is appreciative of CCCTC which is working with her on the deadline to finish the project and is taking into consideration the obstacles she faced and her plans for restoration.

Gabryelle originally planned to keep the restoration of the memorial a secret between herself, the village and the school. She didn’t want her name tied to it or the recognition for doing the project. She initially declined to be interviewed but then realized that maybe her story could serve as inspiration to others to take care of and restore monuments.

“It’s weird to see how things can last so long,” Gabryelle said. “We can always say we will never forget, never forget about that war, but what about the things that stand to represent that war.”

She noted that the memorial used to be a beautiful one where people would gather for ceremonies. She touched on bigger., better memorials that were built but lack the same connection to history as the older ones.

A folded flag still means what it means whether you have it on some bigger and better thing that cost more or here,” Gabryelle said pointing to the memorial.

When asked what she hoped her project would accomplish Gabryelle responded:

“I hope more people see the beauty and honor our veterans more. I hope more people will go to not just this memorial, but different memorials and they will see what they can be and not just for what they are. I want more memorials to be restored. I hope others continue, because although we keep building newer ones there is still the history and beauty in the old ones.”

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com