Thankful Youngstown native feeds city cops
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jon Howell has moved from the city, but his heart remains in Youngstown.
Howell, a 1980 South High School graduate who now lives in Bloomington, Ill., returned to his hometown Tuesday bearing gifts for members of the police department.
Howell, along with his wife, Adrienne, mother, Janet, and aunt Gail Manigault-Waters, provided officers in the roll call room with coffee, cake, cookies and prizes. He said he wanted to thank the department for the work it does protecting the city.
“Without them doing what they do, we wouldn’t be able to keep the city safe,” Howell said. “We believe in Youngstown.”
Howell provided a similar event for other city workers around Labor Day but was not able to include the police department then, so he decided to do it Tuesday, since he is home for the holidays.
Howell said it took about a month to prepare. Starbucks donated coffee, and Dick Adgate florists donated some flower displays. There were also gift cards for officers to win as well.
Howell would not say how much the gesture cost him but, he said with a laugh, “it’s not that bad.”
Howell said he credits his upbringing in Youngstown for helping him in life, and he wants to repay the city of his birth. Howell is an insurance agent.
“Everything I have as a man today I was able to obtain in Youngstown,” Howell said. “We believe in giving back to society as a whole, but especially Youngstown because that is where I was born and raised.”