GlenLakes Veterans
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Memorial Pictorial Journal
Jan 2023 - May 2024
Groundbreaking - Jan 2023
Jan 30, 2023 marked the official first day on construction of the GlenLakes Veterans Memorial.
Founder Denny Blum, Project Manager Mike Fulford, Founder Ron Ford, and Project Manager Dicky Keane
This project begins the effort to erect a lasting testimony and appreciation for GlenLakes veterans, as well as veterans in the local community. While the project has been funded to begin its building efforts, there is much more to be done in order to complete the project. Your continued support for this project will ensure its successful completion -- memorial stones representing each military service, center stone with commemoration plaque, flag poles for each service as well as the U.S. flag in center, benches, memorial bricks, landscaping and maintenance, this memorial needs your help in order to bring it to conclusion, for all of GlenLakes and its visitors to enjoy when entering and exiting the front gate area of the community.
Paver Installation
The memorial platform is built upon a paver brick raised pad design with a handicap/wheelchair assessable walkway leading upwards onto the memorial area. A work still in progress, the finished paver area will be sanded and sealed for a finished pad. Our GLVFA friends Extreme Pavers (located in Weeki Wachee) owned by David Stachowiak. David and his dedicated crew worked tirelessly to complete the memorial platform, which came out beautifully. For driveway, patio and other paver needs, please contact Davis using the link above.
Granite Benches
Shortly, we will be installing granite benches onto the memorial pad. Local stone fabricator Lugo's Natural Stonework (located in Spring Hill) has graciously offered to donate several granite benches (picture below). Lugo's is also working on fabricating our memorial's stone pedestals for the flagpoles and center U.S. flagpole areas. Owners Christian and Tabitha Lugo are excited to help GLVFA's vision of a beautiful memorial. For all your countertop and other granite/quartz stone needs, be sure to click on the link above for contacting them.
Flag Pole Installation
Work has begun for placing 6 military service flagpoles as well as a U.S. flagpole for the veteran's memorial. In the coming days. the Florida Flag and Pennant company will be installing the memorial's flag poles and flags. The flags will represent all 6 main military services as well as the U.S. flag. As work progresses, more pictures will be posted here for all to view.
Memorial Markers Installation
Memorial Brick Platform
"Garden of Honor"
"Garden of Honor"
Overhead Pictures of Memorial
Memorial Day 2023 Flag Half-Staff
Flag Raising on Memorial Day 2023 - Noontime
Memorial Dedication Nov 12, 2024
Memorial Granite Planter Containers
Installation May 20, 2024
Installation May 20, 2024
Memorial Garden of Honor
Update May 24, 2024
Round 3 Bricks Installed
Update May 24, 2024
Round 3 Bricks Installed
View All Memorial Photos Chronological Order
Memorial Project
Detailed Written Journal
2022 - 2024
March 2022: The project is in the design phase. GLVFA leadership is working hard to finalize plans for the memorial. Project manager Dickie Keane is working on finalizing the engineering plans for the memorial. Please reference the conceptual design picture on the left side of this page.
April 2022: GLVFA association, led by Ron Ford, Denny Blum, and George Friel along with other association members has secured a physical location for the memorial. The engineering design for the memorial is nearly complete. The project flyer has been created and is now being distributed.
May 2022: GLVFA project manager Dicky Keane has been working towards securing finalized costs with contractors. Due to several specific memorial design requirements, this is a long process.
5/20 Initial project costing from the vendor has been received. Details of the line-item costs will be reviewed and discussed with the vendor prior to end of moth. Dicky Keane is leading this effort and will be meeting with the vendor later this month.
5/21 Dicky met with another local community to discuss their ongoing memorial project effort. Knowledge transfer of construction specifics along with lessons learned were the focus of the visit. This visit will aid in developing the GLVFA memorial.
5/24 Dicky Keane and Mike Cummings met with contractor and their design staff to discuss engineering specifics including wall facing material, flag positioning, military service flags' lighting, walkway, U.S. flag lighting, donor paver design, and other details of the project. Next steps will be to update draft design and adjust materials and labor costs associated with changes. Contractor will also review onsite lighting options, metering, and light unit options. Meeting with GlenLakes ownership will be required to discuss electrical and lighting requirements. That meeting will occur next month given the upcoming Memorial Day holiday.
Jun 2022: GLVFA project manager Dicky Keane continues to work hard on a number of fronts to aid in supporting the association as well as move the memorial wall project along.
6/1 Dicky Keane has been working diligently in getting a number of local publications to include information (articles) that highlight the work and efforts of the GLVFA as well as highlighting the memorial wall project. When these publications go "live" with the association's information, further details regarding them will be posted here.
6/9 Dicky Keane submitted the final version of the GlenLakes Annual Golf Event and Memorial Wall project flyer for an upcoming GlenLakes Eagle publication. He has worked with GL management to get the associations flyer hopefully into the July edition of the Eagle. Worst case, it will make the August edition. For those interested in what the flyer, which Paul Simcock and Mike Cummings worked to create, click on the button below.
6/28 The GlenLakes Annual Golf Event and Memorial Wall project flyer was included in the July issue of the Eagle, in the form of a full-page insert. Dicky Keane's efforts in working to get the flyer published this upcoming month paid off. The flyer looks really good
Jul 2022: GLVFA project manager Dicky Keane and other members involved in the memorial wall project will continue to work to move the ball forward on this project. Ron Ford sent out a membership email requesting membership support for the memorial wall project, this email campaign will be the focus for the month in hopes of increasing member support for the project as well as other sources of support through various donations beyond the membership.
7/2 A second memorial flyer has been completed and submitted to the GlenLakes Eagle for publishing in the August issue. Same message, but different wording and overall look. Be sure to check out the July issue of the Eagle and pass along to your family and friends!
Aug 2022: Summertime has slowed down efforts in overall focus on fund raising and project efforts for the memorial wall. However, project manager Dickie has continued to engage in awareness efforts including numerous publications (Weeki Wachee Buzz, Hernando Sun, etc.). These publications have continued features to help spread the word regarding GLVFA projects such as the SAVES, Memorial Wall and Annual golf programs. Also, hopefully everyone saw the group's memorial wall flyer in the August edition of the GlenLakes Eagle. The donation flyer has helped awareness of the memorial wall project and has proven helpful in GL homeowners support for the wall.
8/5 Dickie Keane and Mike Cummings attended the national DAV convention held in Orlando, FL. Visited with one of our sponsors Nuerolumen, the folks who have done demonstrations of their pain therapy device at recent GLVFA monthly meetings. Neurolumen also presented a large donation to GLVFA as part of their continued support of veteran groups and veterans pain management needs. In addition to meeting other conference attendees including Ford (auto company), main purpose of the visit by Dickie and Mike was to meet with the editor of the DAV magazine to engage in an interview with the editor to discuss all of our GLVFA programs, with a 2+ hour discussion detailing the purpose of the organization as well as to highlight out memorial wall effort. The editor was impressed with our group and its purpose and will be reaching out shortly for more details that hopefully will end up in an upcoming piece on GLVFA in their national DAV magazine.
8/10 Dickie Keane and Mike Cummings were onsite at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp with an effort to help spread the word regarding the GLVFA projects and purpose in aiding veterans organizations. We met with numerous officials of the Bucs organization although no opportunity to talk to Tom Brady regarding our group (he was busy on the practice field!). However, Dickie and Mike had an opportunity to meet with the Bucs Chief Operating Officer Brian Ford (no relation to Ron Ford). Mr. Ford can be an excellent champion for GLVFA and will be further engaged.
September 2022 -- no news or updates this month.
October 2022 - Memorial project team continue their efforts.
10/14 The memorial wall project efforts continue onwards with various discussions regarding re-design of the memorial to accommodate cost of materials, simplicity of the design, etc. A meeting was held with a contractor to discuss project, showed contractor the proposed placement area of the memorial, etc. Next effort will be to finalize the re-design and present to members and donors the memorial design.
10/20 The memorial brick paver organization has been selected and a brick paver information and purchase order form will be developed for presentation to members at the next R&R coming up on 10/22. It is hoped the membership will embrace the idea of purchasing a memorial brick to help support the memorial wall project.
November 2022 - Memorial Update
11/1 The memorial wall project will evolve into simply the memorial project as the "wall" design depicted in our rendition pictures is technically difficult to achieve on a reasonable budget. A new design is forthcoming that will still provide the memorial element the organization is seeking to attain but at a cost and ease of building that fits the budget and aesthetics more appropriately. More details on the new design will be highlighted on the GLVFA website once the artist rendition has been created
11/14 Update for the memorial project. GLVFA leadership met with the GlenLakes owners to discuss the memorial. The owners have graciously offered a piece of property located in the front triangular area in front of the bocci ball section, just past the front gate entrance. The owners also expressed their willingness to aid and assist in the project through their extensive construction contacts, excess materials, etc. We are fortunate to have owners here at GL that fully support this project and the many veterans and friends that live here in this spectacular community.
11/22 The memorial project continues to move forward in terms of membership and outside contributions. In particular, the brick paver element to the memorial has officially "kicked off" with getting donations for individual memorial bricks. We will need quite a few bricks to complete the brick paver walkway leading up to the memorial so please pass the word to family and friends to support the memorial through direct donations to go towards the memorial itself and/or to purchase a memorial brick(s). The donation form for the memorial which includes the purchase of memorial bricks is available on the donation page.
December 2022 - Memorial Update
12/18 The memorial project has not been forgotten! We have come up with a new design that better fits the GLVFA mantra on providing a meaningful and simplistic memorial that is also more fiscally in line with the project budget as well as being easier to construct and maintain over time. New GLVFA leadership member Mike Fulford will be assisting in securing proper permits, coordinating with construction vendors, etc. along with Dicky Keane, Randy Lombard and Mike Cummings. The design seen to the left is the new rendition that depicts memorial stones for each of the services (1a-1), a center memorial stone depicting the GLVFA logo (2c0 and memorial benches (3a-b). Memorial brick pavers as shown will showcase individual memorial bricks for loved veterans and are currently on sale. For each memorial stone (1a-1f and 2c), there will be services flags behind each memorial service stone as well as a U.S. flag located in the center (2c).
12/19 The memorial budget has been moved into its own 501(3)(c) non-profit in order to have a more focused approach to fund-raising efforts for the memorial over other initiatives such as the veterans SAVES program, local veteran organizations, veteran home, etc. More information about the memorial and its status will be discussed at the next meeting in January
January 2023 - Memorial Update
1/21 The holidays are now past, new year is here. Not a lot of activity concerning the memorial, but we have certainly been working behind the scenes to move the project in a forward direction. Shortly, we will be meeting with a paver company to measure the site where there will be a walkway leading from the main street's concrete walkway along with the patio area where the memorial will reside. We are also waiting for the estimates back for the stone elements of the memorial, hopefully will report on that here shortly. At the annual year-end R&R, which occurred Jan 21, 2023, grants were given to various area veteran organizations and also to the memorial project (which is now reported as its own non-profit organization, separate from the GLVFA main organization). Please refer to the Jan 21, 2023 R&R section that is described on this site's front page for pictures of the grant presentations, including the presentation for the memorial project.
1/23 A meeting was held with our selected brick paver company to lay out the general area that will be used to build the paver walkway and center area of the memorial, per the sample design seen on the left of this page (design is nearly 100% accurate, some minor modifications may be made depending on the outcome of the final draft architectural design currently being worked on by the drafting firm.
1/26 GLVFA leadership met with GlenLakes owner and staff to finalize details regarding land and other matters surrounding the start of building the memorial. This meeting is instrumental, as it signals the ability of the memorial project to proceed.
Groundbreaking
1/30 Groundbreaking for the GlenLakes Veterans Memorial occurred today. More details will be forthcoming as they evolve.
February 2023 - Memorial Update
2/5 Everyone by now have noticed that the paver platform and walkway has been installed. Extreme Pavers (Weeki Wachee) did a great job with the installation. More work will be done to 'finish' the paver effort up but we finally have a memorial footprint!
2/10 Dicky continues to work hard on the memorial project, now moving towards securing granite benches being donated by Lugo's Granite, courtesy of owners Christian and Tabitha Lugo. Meanwhile, Mike Fulford is working on securing flagpoles and flags for the memorial. More details on that effort as it develops.
2/17 Work continues with the next step for the memorial which will be to place the service flag poles. The Florida Flag and Pennant company (Wesly Chapel) was on-site performing measurements and eventual placement of the 6 service flags that will be placed directly behind the memorial pavers stone platform. Actual installation of the flag poles will be upcoming next week.
2/21 Today marked the day where the flag poles for all 6 services as well as the US flag were set. As can be seen in the timeline of groundbreaking, platform/pavers, and flagpole sections above, this part of the memorial build is now completed. Next activity will be to place memorial benches.
March 2023 - Memorial Update
3/14 The benches were installed today by Lugo's Natural Stoneworks folks. The benches will be used by visitors to be able to sit and reflect for their loved one's military service as well as to simply enjoy the patriotic symbol of what the GlenLakes memorial was created for. The next activity for the memorial will be the acquisition and placement of memorial granite pedestals in front of each service flagpole and a center stone in front of the U.S. flagpole. This acquisition is in the works, more details to follow.
3/24 Extreme Paver (Weeki Wachee) crew was back out at the memorial finalizing their efforts in filling in the platform of pavers with special sand to lock all the pavers in into place. They also applied a seal coat over the pavers to protect them from weather and the hot sun.
3/26 The Glen Lakes management issued a notice to the community that the memorial is not suitable for use by residents for anything other than its intended purpose. That purpose is to provide all Glen Lakes residents and their visitors a place in which to reflect and honor those that have served the country through their military service past, present and future. It is hoped that all who visit the memorial respect it by not driving golf carts onto the platform, using the memorial for exercise activities, and so forth.
April 2023 - Memorial Update
4/15 - Extreme Pavers completed adding brick pavers to form a final edge to the service flag area that are set in blue stone.
May 2023 - Memorial Update
5/15 The GLVFA memorial marker was delivered by Lugos and placed at the foot of the U.S. flagpole. The stone is not permanent until all stone markers have been delivered.
5/31 The first official function of the memorial occurred today. Several of the GLVFA leadership arrived at dawn to perform a mini-ceremony to lower the flag to half staff. Pictures of the event were taken and posted here on the website. At noontime, the flag was raised to full staff. Both the lowering and raising of the flag was performed by Curt Reilly.
June 2023 - Memorial Flagpole Markers Installed
6/15 The six flagpole granite markers were delivered and placed onto the memorial today. Each marker has the flagpoles' service logo engraved into the granite facing as well as the service birth year and service motto.
July 2023 - No Updates
August 2023 - Memorial Brick Platform Base Built
8/1 The platform for the memorial bricks has been installed. There is no bricks laid as of yet, those will be the next step in the process.
8/6 Memorial brick program's order form has been updated and available under the "memorial", "Brick Program" menu of the GLVFA website.
September-October 2023 - Brick Purchase Program Officially Begins
9/1 - 10/31 The first round of brick orders was collected over this period of time and submitted to the vendor who will laser etch memorial bricks. Tis round of bricks consists of approximately 100 brick orders that will be eventually placed into the Brick "Garden of Honor" in November. Anticipated time for installation will be prior to the Veterans Day Memorial dedication ceremony to be held on Nov 12th, 2024.
November 2023 - Memorial Dedication
11/12 The memorial dedication ceremony was held on this day, Sunday, Nov 12th, 2023.
Please visit the memorial dedication page by clicking on the hot button below.
November-December 2023 - Memorial Brick Garden of Honor
** The garden of honor bricks, first round (~ 100 bricks) will be laid in the garden of honor before years end.
January 2024 - Memorial Brick Garden of Honor "Round 2"
1/1 The second round of brick ordering is underway. This next round is expected to take some time to complete. There must be a sufficient number of bricks ordered before they can all be added to the first round of bricks (bricks will be added in groups of approx. 100 bricks at any given time). Therefore, there won't be any updates here until the time comes later this Spring for the placement of additional bricks into the garden (assuming there are sufficient enough bricks for round 2 to be placed).
May 2024 - Memorial Granite Flower Containers
1/21 Lugo's Natural Stoneworks (SpringHill, FL) built, delivered and installed the memorial's new granite flower containers. These two containers, both feet long in size, line the entrance walkway leading up onto the memorial paver deck. Not only are they a great look to display patriotic flowers throughout the year, but they also serve as a protection from visitors potentially falling due to the uneven paver area where the walkway leads up onto the memorial paver deck (platform). Please check the pictorial timeline of the memorial to see the pictures of these new and beautiful plant containers!
1/24 Memorial Brick Garden of Honor "Round 3"
The round 3 order of bricks finally arrived and were installed today. Please review the memorial timeline pictures to see the new bricks being installed.
GLVFA Memorial In The News
Read the latest Hernando Sun Dec 2023 Article detailing the memorial dedication
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Memorial Maintenance
Sample Memorial Paver Bricks
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Click buttons below to download donation forms to support the memorial directly (maintain) and/or to purchase memorial garden bricks for your beloved veteran. Please pass the donation forms to your family, friends and neighbors to gain their support for this worthy cause!
GLVFA Veterans Memorial
Core Values
Core Values
REFLECTION – “serious thought or consideration”
This veteran memorial will hopefully provide a place of solace for the veterans, their relatives, and visitors to reflect on the service and duty of those we honor.
HONOR – “a privilege”
Most Veterans consider it a high privilege to have served our nation. It becomes our privilege to honor the servicemen and women represented by this monument and memorial. Honor also alludes to “fulfilling an obligation”. Since our veterans fulfilled and are continuing to fulfill their obligations, this memorial will serve to satisfy our obligation to them.
REMEMBRANCE – “a thing kept or given as a reminder or in commemoration of someone”
How we remember is important. How we memorialize our veterans is critical. This memorial will provide a permanent and positive habitat to enshrine in our memory the lives of our veterans.
RECOGNITION – “appreciation or acclaim for an achievement, service, or ability”
Saying our veterans deserve acclaim for their achievements are one of the great understatements of our time. Our very existence as a nation has depended upon our armed services. This memorial will echo the deep appreciation of our community to our service men and women
This veteran memorial will hopefully provide a place of solace for the veterans, their relatives, and visitors to reflect on the service and duty of those we honor.
HONOR – “a privilege”
Most Veterans consider it a high privilege to have served our nation. It becomes our privilege to honor the servicemen and women represented by this monument and memorial. Honor also alludes to “fulfilling an obligation”. Since our veterans fulfilled and are continuing to fulfill their obligations, this memorial will serve to satisfy our obligation to them.
REMEMBRANCE – “a thing kept or given as a reminder or in commemoration of someone”
How we remember is important. How we memorialize our veterans is critical. This memorial will provide a permanent and positive habitat to enshrine in our memory the lives of our veterans.
RECOGNITION – “appreciation or acclaim for an achievement, service, or ability”
Saying our veterans deserve acclaim for their achievements are one of the great understatements of our time. Our very existence as a nation has depended upon our armed services. This memorial will echo the deep appreciation of our community to our service men and women
Memorial Project Team at Work
Left to Right: Dicky Keane, Blaise Ingoglia (state senator), Ron Ford, and Mike Fulford
Dicky Keane and Mike Cummings
Dicky Keane and Mike Cummings
Working with Neurolumen, who supports GLVFA
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Chris Ford (Tampa Bay Bucs COO) with Dicky Keane
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