Veterans Memorial in Lake Nona to honor fallen soldiers

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Veterans Memorial in Lake Nona to honor fallen soldiers

Around Osceola

Wednesday, 07 September 2011 00:00

Lake Nona finalized a 99-year lease agreement with the Central Florida Veterans Memorial Park Foundation for the construction of a world-class veterans memorial to be located adjacent to the new Orlando VA Medical Center at Lake Nona Medical City.
The world-class memorial will honor the more than 1,100 veterans from Orange, Lake, Brevard, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties who made the ultimate sacrifice and never returned, according to a foundation press release.
“The Veterans Memorial will be an important addition to Lake Nona, and will no doubt become an important place of reflection for the Orlando VA Medical Center and the broader community,” Jim Zboril, president of Lake Nona, said. “It has been a pleasure working with the Central Florida Veterans Memorial Park Foundation and we all look forward to seeing this fitting memorial constructed.”
The foundation, led by Central Florida Veteran Jerry E. Pierce, is a solely supported by private contributions.
“Our capital campaign continues to raise funds each day with the help of community leaders like Lake Nona, who have given so generously in recognition of the sacrifices of veterans,” Pierce said. “We look forward to the day we will celebrate our groundbreaking and subsequent opening of Central Florida’s largest memorial honoring veterans.”
The memorial will be the only memorial in the country to be located adjacent to a VA Medical Center. Pierce noted that with the beautiful and tranquil setting provided by Lake Nona this will be much more than a Memorial - it will also be a place of healing.
Central Florida war heroes, Col. Joe Kittinger, United States Air Force (Ret.), LTC Earle Denton, USA (Ret.) and Bill Coleman, who are the original founders of the organization, have worked tirelessly to get funding for the Orlando VA Medical Center and also for the creation of the memorial, the press release stated. Coleman, who is the sole survivor of his paratroop that jumped into Normandy the day before D-Day, said he was happy to see the day that the Orlando VA Medical Center along with the memorial will become a reality. Kittinger added that this memorial will be an important reminder to future generations that freedom is not free.
Rogers, Lovelock & Fritz, who are designing the new Orlando VA Medical Center, also have contributed substantial in kind design and engineering related services to the joint community project, which is being coordinated to be consistent with the design of the new medical center opening in 2012.
For more information about the Central Florida Veterans Memorial Park Foundation, visit www.cfvmpf.org.