Gabryelle Deitch puts the finishing touches on a bench she constructed to place at the World War I Memorial at Spring Hill Cemetery when she is finished restoring the memorial. (Photo submitted by Gabryelle Deitch.

WELLSVILLE — A long line of service military service in her family and a desire to preserve history led Gabryelle Deitch,17, to decide to restore the WWI Memorial at the Spring Hill Cemetery in Wellsville.

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.