Veterans Park just got a big boost from a longtime Spring Hill family. 

Al and Pam Knaebel donated $100,000 to the Veterans Park project to kickstart donations for a veterans’ monument and other amenities. 

“We chose this opportunity to support the veterans monument because we wanted to be a part of something truly special, something that will stand in our community for a very long time and to do our part in the community,” Al Knaebel said. 

The new park is slated to open in the summer of 2020 on the west side of Spring Hill City Lake. It is part of a special sales tax initiative approved by Spring Hill voters in 2008. 

“This donation is just simply a small form of the greatest respect we have for all who served our great nation,” Knaebel said. “Our family members span World War II, Vietnam and the Iraq war without going deeper into our history. My father served in World War II in the infantry as a forward observer. In other words, he went behind enemy lines to locate the targets and call in the coordinates. Pretty impressive responsibility for a guy with an eighth-grade education. We still have his mathematical equation book he carried with him. My father-in-law served as part of the cleanup efforts in the Navy removing mines from the shipping lanes while serving in the Philippines, while both my brothers served in Vietnam at much of the same time. More recently, two of our nephews served abroad during the Iraq War.”

The Knaebels hope their donation — which will come in phases over the next several years — spurs others in the community to donate to this special project, he said.    

“Pam and I, along with our family, are just proud to be a part of Spring Hill community and especially proud to contribute to the veterans’ monument.”