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Students celebrate centenarian’s birthday

John “Yonk” Warbel is shown with a few of the birthday wishes.

BERGHOLZ — Students at John Gregg Elementary continued to spread kindness by sharing well-wishes with a local veteran for his 100th birthday.

Kids in grades PreK-6 created cards for centenarian John “Yonk” Warbel, a World War II veteran from Bergholz. Each grade was asked to make a card for Warbel and crafted 376 messages, which were then collected and given to him for his big day on Jan. 18. Melissa Huggins, a visual impairment aide at the school, took over the annual Operation Christmas Card project last year and spearheaded the latest endeavor to honor Warbel.

“Our secretary, Casey Barnhouse, has been Mr. Warbel’s neighbor and friend for approximately 30 years. She had made a Facebook post asking people to send birthday cards to him for his 100th birthday, and (John Gregg Principal Tammy Burchfield) approached me asking if I would gather cards from our student body,” Huggins said.

She added that the younger children signed cards with pre-written messages while the older students added their own personal notes.

“I placed a message in the cards being done by kindergarten and preschool students,” Huggins continued. “There were messages like ‘Wishing you a Happy 100th Birthday.’ The rest of the student body included their own personalized messages, drawings and birthday wishes.”

Warbel, a lifelong resident, has lived in the same home in the Wolf Run area that he built in 1954. He celebrated his milestone with a party that weekend and said he was moved by the support he received as he officially became a centenarian.

“Turning 100 is pretty good when you have so many people making you feel so special,” he quipped.

Huggins said the students equally enjoyed it and the card campaign follows their Christmas card project that was completed prior to the holiday break for military personnel and local nursing home residents.

“Operation Christmas Cards yielded roughly 2,500 cards,” she noted. “I was able to send approximately 700 cards to 10 local nursing homes, 15 stateside service members and 11 overseas service members.”

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