How does a 103-year-old celebrate her birthday?

With a biker group, of course.

Last year, The American Legion Motorcyle Club of Post 184 took part in the 100-mile Huckleberry Run, held in honor of Melanie Heckman of East Greenville, who died May 15, 2004, in a motorcycle accident.

The group left Legion Post 184, East Greenville, and stopped at CJ Hummels Restaurant, Len-hartsville, before traveling to Lehighton.

The run is held each year as a memorial to raise money for Heckman's daughter, Christy Serfass, so she can attend college.

At Hummels, the motorcycle group met Mildred Gilbert of New Tripoli, who was celebrating her 102nd birthday with granddaughter Katy and husband Marshall Boak.

Club member Frank DeCaro kept in touch with Katy and arranged to meet them for Mildred's 103rd birthday.

So, this year, on Sept. 15, five days before her actual birthday, Mildred celebrated at Hummels with her daughter Louise, son-in-law Harold Kaufman, Katy, Marshall and 100 bikers.

"They are the nicest people," Mildred said of her newly acquired friends. "I never have had so many hugs and kisses in one day."

Friend of bikers is just part of Mildred Gilbert's life experiences.

She is also an author, Lioness and printer.

She began a book about her life and worked on it for 60 years. The centenarian plus 3 years ended the project with events from the year 2000.

Born in Mill Creek, Heidelberg Township, she was the youngest child of Charles Kunkle and Mary Mamie Brobst.

The family moved from Mill Creek to Sand Spring when Mildred was 11.

She said her father couldn't go anyplace without her. They were constant companions and workmates.

Both her parents died at age 60 but one sister lived to be 107, and Mildred seems to have inherited the same longevity genes.

Her sister, Helen, attended the McCann School to learn hairdressing.

She was a good historian for anything in the county, Mildred recalled.

"I had puppies all my life. I like all animals," Mildred said. "I worked with my father on the farm from the age of 5.

"We raised our own milk cows; made our own butter and butchered."

Mildred said she has always had a collie until the dog she has now, a 7-month-old Welsh Corgi named Buddy.

Buddy's parents belonged to Queen Elizabeth but the female was flown to this country to give birth and Mildred was given one of the puppies.

Mildred and her husband, Paul Gilbert, lived in Washington D.C.

A printer, he lost an eye and his insurance company would not cover his work with only one eye.

They moved to New Tripoli where she still lives after 78 years.

"I'm a printer by heart. I wouldn't give up until I found an antique press," she said.

Paul found work in the fomer Trojan ammunition plant.

The antique printing press was recently sold to the Lynn-Heidelberg Historical Society.

"My husband was a wonderful man, an honest, loving respectable person," Mildred said.

He helped to organize the Ontelaunee Lions and served in all official positions with the club.

Paul was also a member of the Masons who proved helpful when Paul needed them.

"They were real brothers," she said.

"I organized the Lioness Club in 1977. It was the first ladies' club in Pennsylvania," Mildred said.

The club had a special program to help the ill or injured and provided medical equipment.

Paul and Mildred traveled a lot representing the Lions Clubs International. She said they were in every state and some foreign countries. She said their travels provided them with a high degree of education.

The place she would most like to return to is South Dakota. She drove the motor home when they traveled. She enjoyed seeing the buffalo in the meadows and the plays that were staged in the mountains where President Theodore Roosevelt lived.

"There are beautiful ranches that we visited overnight by invitation," she explained. "We saw all the amusements that people came for - a beautiful experience. We were invited to the Mormon Temple in Utah. It was beautiful."

Paul studied history in high school and picked sites that he wanted to see.

"We were in Mexico on a caravan with Joe Higgins," Mildred said. "We rode a flat-bed train on the railroad. That was something.

"We visited the mission. It was a beautiful little town. We came as strangers and were accepted."

"Paul ran the bingo for the fire company and said, 'Come on Mildred, you have to do something for the town,' so I ran it for three years."

In Washington, D.C., Paul was a government printer.

After they opened their print shop in New Tripoli, Mildred set type and ran the business.

Mildred misses traveling the most.

She still researches places but cannot go.

Her friend, Robert Nester, however, comes to her home frequently for visits and takes her shopping.

She enjoys his visits as she can no longer travel far.

"Traveling and work, I loved to work," Mildred explained. "I went to Alaska three times. I flew to Seattle and took a boat. It was very interesting. I went to the North Pole and saw the oil pipelines.

"We took float planes and went to the border of Russia. We saw the military camps in Alaska and the Iditarod dog races.

"I took in all the sights I could, and even drove to Mount McKinley. We saw the glaciers from up high (in a plane). The ice is blue. It calved and water came up against our plane.

"We saw something the pilot said no one would see for another 30 years."