by Gary Sinise
In May the band played a concert at Fort Hood, Texas. The following November, a terrorist attack at the base killed thirteen people and injured thirty-two. Just awful. One of our own soldiers had been radicalized and had opened fire on his fellow service members. I wanted to do something to help, so I called the commanding general and offered to bring my band for a healing and support concert in the following month. This turned into a large USO event with several entertainers performing, including Dana Carvey and the Zac Brown Band. The concert took place a little over a month after the shooting, and people on base were clearly in need of support and encouragement. I was grateful to have a part in helping them heal through that difficult time. Sadly, in the fall of 2013, I would make a similar offer, this time reaching out to Navy Yard in Washington, DC, to provide a healing concert after the terrible shooting there that took the lives of twelve people and injured eight more.
Another busy year was planned for 2010: thirty-five concerts and additional events in support of our troops. They were still out there fighting, and I kept doing so much because so much needed to be done. But I was tired. I wondered how long I could keep up this pace. Would I be able to continue like this, or would I burn out?
Yet I envisioned a future doing still more, and I wanted to figure out a way to ramp up, not pull back, my work since I could see the positive effects these efforts were having. The question was how. I began to consider consolidating my mission under one umbrella, continuing the work while focusing my priorities in the most effective way possible. Having teamed up with many organizations and efforts in the military support space, I had learned a great deal about many different areas of need. I could strategically harness the incredible power of the many volunteers who worked alongside me over the years and could help serve them and our military, veteran, and first responder communities more effectively too. I could still point donors in a good direction and encourage the generosity of the American people to support quality projects I was involved in, but I could do it more consistently under this one umbrella. And since I would be building a bigger team, delegating more responsibilities to other people, I thought perhaps I could do even more while spending a bit more time with my family, something I had been longing to do for some time.
Thinking all of that through, the solution became clear: my own foundation. I had been on the ground floor of other nonprofits in the past, such as Steppenwolf and Operation International Children, and I knew I needed great people around me to get things started. At the time, I had a little office at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, on the lot where we shot CSI: NY. Organizers and volunteers came to the office to help me with various initiatives. That’s where I met Judith Otter. She’d moved from the East Coast to the West Coast to marry Ben Robin, my longtime hair and makeup pal. Judy was educated at Juilliard and had spent several years as a professional ballerina. Following her dance career, she held several senior-level positions at leading financial institutions as well as board positions at a few philanthropic organizations. In 2009, I was very busy. I hadn’t really gotten to know Judy well yet, but as she had recently relocated and had not quite settled into a job, I asked Ben to ask her if she would like to volunteer in my office. She agreed and began coming in to answer phones, helping to organize events I was putting together, whatever needed to be done. As time went on we got to know each other better, and it quickly became clear that she was a leader and someone I could rely on. So I offered her a small salary, and she began coming in to the office every day. Judy is a tremendously hard worker, a skilled manager with a lot of business experience, and has a very strong work ethic. In early 2010, I told her I was going to start a foundation and asked if she’d like to help. She accepted and I hired her, initially as my administrative director, and we went to work starting discussions with a nonprofit attorney about how to set it up. After a while Judy would begin running the foundation as executive director, and over the years became a fierce guardian, supporting me in my mission and helping me build the foundation from the ground up.
A blessing of experiencing success on television in CSI: NY was that I now had the financial resources to invest in hiring personnel, renting a new office, and purchasing the furniture, computers, and office equipment necessary to get us started and to support the foundation in the years to come. Judy began the hunt for the new office and located a space right across the street from CBS Studios. We then needed to begin solidifying our identity. A buddy of mine, Kiran RajBhandary, worked in branding and marketing, and I hired him to create a logo and a website. Over the next few months we went back and forth before final decisions were made on the look we were all happy with. I had been involved in so many different types of initiatives at this point. And even though I was consolidating efforts, I still wanted to keep the mission statement broad, reflecting the support work I’d done over the years, and so we could always adapt to the changing needs of our veterans. We came up with this statement:
At the Gary Sinise Foundation, we serve our nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need. We do this by creating and supporting unique programs designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen, and build communities.
That gave us a pretty wide berth to operate in. I’d been involved in entertaining the troops, visiting the wounded in military hospitals, and honoring our heroes by supporting the building of various memorials that would remind and educate present and future generations about the sacrifices of our military and the cost of preserving our freedom. I’d helped build homes for our wounded and their families, supported our first responders, and participated in resiliency and morale-boosting events for families and children of our fallen. All that felt important to me. I’d seen much need for support in all those areas. So the mission statement had to be broad. On June 30, 2011, at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, we announced the launch of the Gary Sinise Foundation. We were up and running.
Today, including the work of the Lt. Dan Band and the annual Snowball Express, the Gary Sinise Foundation has ten programs, each focused on a specific area of need. Each program emerged from a personal connection or an incident in my life.
We have our own home building program for severely wounded veterans called R.I.S.E., which stands for Restoring Independence and Supporting Empowerment—exactly what giving someone a specially adapted smart home is all about. When veterans are severely wounded, they lose much of their independence and empowerment. In a regular home that’s not built for a person with an injury, it can be difficult to get around.
For example, we built a home for US Army Ranger Sergeant First Class Michael Schlitz, who served as a rifleman and platoon sergeant in southern Iraq. On February 27, 2007, Mike and his crew were conducting road-clearing missions near Baghdad when their vehicle struck a hidden IED and burst into flame. His gunner, Sergeant Richard Soukenka, and medic, Sergeant Jonathan Cadavero, were killed instantly. His driver, Corporal Lorne Henry Jr., passed away shortly after the blast. Mike rode in the passenger seat. Engulfed in flames, he was thrown from the vehicle. He lost both hands and the sight in his left eye, and sustained burns over 85 percent of his body.
Early in Mike’s recovery, he started going to a program at UCLA called Operation Mend, consisting of a team of surgeons who provide free surgeries to our severely wounded veterans. When I first met Mike, he was so severely burned, he didn’t have a nose and he talked through a hole in his throat. We struck up a friendship. Over the years he’s had multiple reconstructive surgeries to repair the damage to his eyelids, mouth, nose, and other parts of his body where his skin was burned. Having lost both arms, he now uses two prosthetic hooks.
Mike’s living situation posed innumerable challenges for him. Because of the fragility of his skin, Mike preferred colder temperatures and often needed to turn on the air conditioner full blast. His mom, Robbie, is his full-time caregiver, and she wore heavy coats to keep warm in the house. Direct sunlight is hard on Mike’s ey
es, so he preferred to keep all the shades drawn. We built them a home with one section for Mike and another for his mom, where the temperature and light in each section of the house can be individually governed. Mike has a special shower and a gym that he can navigate by himself. We helped restore Mike’s independence and helped empower them both. Mike is an amazing individual who’s dedicating his life to honoring his fallen brothers through serving his fellow veterans. An ambassador for my foundation, he helps us with our veterans’ outreach as our military and veterans resource manager.
With our smart home program, we work with each wounded service member to provide exactly what they need. Mike doesn’t have children, but Master Sergeant John Masson is married and has three kids. On October 16, 2010, while conducting village-stability operations in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, John, a medic with the 20th Special Forces Group, stepped on a hidden IED and lost both legs and his left arm. Due to the severity of his amputations, he can’t wear prosthetics and is confined to a wheelchair. The hallways in his house were too narrow for a wheelchair. Additionally, he couldn’t reach anything in the closets, and the bathroom was too small for him to navigate alone. So we built a house for John and his family that allows him to be independent, and in turn allows his wife and children to worry less about caring for him.
Because each home is unique, budgets fluctuate from house to house. For instance, we built a home for Captain Luis Avila and his family in the Chevy Chase area of Maryland close to Walter Reed. Land in Chevy Chase isn’t cheap, but Luis needs to go to the military hospital regularly for ongoing, long-term treatments. We knew that a home near the hospital would help Luis and his family immensely.
Luis served five combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. On December 27, 2011, Luis’s vehicle ran over an IED. Luis lost his left leg, then suffered two strokes and two heart attacks, resulting in traumatic brain injury. Ultimately, he was left almost completely paralyzed. Today Luis continues to heal while maintaining an incredibly positive attitude and a sense of humor. His wife, Claudia, is his full-time caregiver and never leaves his side. She is one of the fierce fighters for the needs of our wounded service members and reminds us of the importance of also supporting our caregivers.
Each smart home is given to the veteran free of charge. The mortgage for the house and land is completely underwritten. The veteran can select what part of the country he or she wants to live in. When needed, we also provide adapted vehicles and mobility devices such as wheelchairs, Trackchairs, and Segway personal transporters. Our director of operations oversees all aspects of the foundation’s home-building process. We average ten to twelve houses per year, sometimes more. From the beginning of my support of home building, on that first home for Brendan Marrocco prior to the creation of my foundation, to our most recent homes created through the Gary Sinise Foundation, I have been blessed to have supported the building or refurbishing of more than seventy smart homes to fit the needs of wounded veterans. Thankfully, we’re not the only organization in America that does this. Several of these homes were built in partnership with other organizations. But about fifty of them were built solely by my foundation and our great team.
Supporting our nation’s wounded veterans is close to my heart. Though it is in no way comparable, I remember the challenges of being in a wheelchair on the set of Forrest Gump. I found it difficult enough to have my legs bent underneath me, but of course, I could always stand up and walk again. Being able to provide these supportive services for our many real-life Lieutenant Dans is an incredible honor.
We have another program called Serving Heroes. I’ve always held great compassion and empathy for someone who serves his country by going off to war, who perhaps is wounded or sees his brothers and sisters in arms lose their lives or become wounded, then comes home and is mistreated or ignored. Sometimes the simplest gestures can remind our veterans and active-duty service members how much we appreciate them.
Before the foundation was created, Moira and I drove to LAX one day to pick up Ella, who was flying home from university. We arrived an hour early, so we walked over to the USO building to see if we could say thanks to any veterans or active-duty service members there. I signed some autographs and took a few pictures; then I got to talking with the USO representatives on duty. I asked if they had any upcoming days where a lot of troops would be coming through the USO, and they did, so I simply volunteered to buy lunch for them as a way of saying thanks.
When the day of higher traffic arrived, we bought a bunch of barbecued ribs with all the fixings for the troops, and USO reps and volunteers passed out the food. I continued to do this each month until it eventually became the foundation’s Serving Heroes program. We’ve expanded to serve free lunches not only in USOs but in VA hospitals and different travel hubs wherever high numbers of troops pass through. We do this both domestically and overseas, and we’ve now served more than one hundred thousand meals to the troops. Buying lunch is simply one more way of telling the troops, “We appreciate you,” and “We haven’t forgotten about you.” The idea came from those times when I’ve seen a service member in a restaurant and secretly picked up the check, leaving a little note of thanks behind. Anyone can do it, and I hope more people do. But I love those rare moments when I am able to pop in and serve up some baked beans for the troops in person. It’s a great feeling.
The foundation is now the sole sponsor of Steppenwolf’s Veterans’ Night through our Arts and Entertainment Outreach program. For every play Steppenwolf has performed since the early 1980s, the final dress rehearsal is set aside as Veterans’ Night and includes free dinner and a free show for anyone who has ever served our country. Since the creation of the Gary Sinise Foundation, we have supported more than sixty-four hundred veterans attending these special nights. It’s been a wonderful way to help our entertainment community extend a supportive hand to our defenders and it’s gratifying that all these years later, through the support of the American people who donate to the foundation, I can still be a part of this work.
From the beginning, I wanted the foundation to support our first responders. The seeds for our First Responder Outreach program were planted after 9/11 when I was introduced to members of the FDNY and became involved with the Fire Family Transport Foundation in New York and the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance. Like our nation’s defenders, our police and firefighters work hard to protect our cities. It’s dangerous work, and we want to do everything we can to make sure they’re not forgotten.
Through our First Responder Outreach program, we reach out and support police, firefighters, and EMTs in any areas of specific need. For instance, Green Beret Edward Cantrell and his wife, Louise, had two young daughters, Isabella and Natalia. During Edward and Louise’s eight years of marriage, Edward completed six combat tours and received four Bronze Star Medals and a Purple Heart. After he returned home for good, they lived in a house built in the 1920s, and in the early-morning hours of March 6, 2012, their house caught fire. Edward wanted to get Louise out quickly, so he helped Louise jump from the second story of the house, and they made it out safely. Edward wrapped himself in a blanket and ran back into the blazing home to rescue their daughters while Louise ran to a nearby nursing home and dialed 911. Tragically, Edward and the girls never emerged. Firefighters found all three inside the home, killed from smoke inhalation. Edward was thirty-seven, Isabella six, and Natalia four.
When I heard about this story, my heart broke. I wanted to do something to support Louise, as well as encourage the firefighters who’d responded that night. The tragedy hit them all. So I asked our ambassador John Masson, who lives near Fort Bragg and is a former Green Beret, to reach out to the firefighters at the Cotton and Hope Mills fire departments in North Carolina, to see if there was anything they could use. Firefighters from the two small towns had responded to the blaze, and one station needed a new river rescue boat, while the other needed a new equipment trailer.
The foundation decided to purchase both the boat and the tr
ailer and dedicate them in honor of Edward, Isabella, and Natalia. Louise’s little girls had loved dancing, and in their memory Louise had already started a foundation called Dancing Angels to fund scholarships to help young dancers fulfill their dreams. When the equipment was ready, I flew out to North Carolina and we held a ceremony in their honor, surprising Louise with the dedication of the equipment. Moira and I also made a donation to the Dancing Angels Foundation. Louise is an amazing woman full of resilience and courage.
Over the years, the Gary Sinise Foundation has provided grants for equipment and support for families of first responders who have been wounded or killed in service. Among other things, we’ve provided additional transport vehicles to departments around the country. This began with a donation of an SUV Moira and I made to the New York City–based Fire Family Transport Foundation, and to my surprise and delight they named it the “Lt. Dan Van.” Many of the smaller town fire departments are volunteer and barely have any budget to fight fires or provide all that is necessary to keep their firefighters safe. So we try to help where needed, sometimes stepping into the most heartbreaking situations. We built a home for police officer Michael Flamion from Ballwin, Missouri. He was shot in the neck by an assailant during a routine traffic stop and is paralyzed from the neck down. His wife is now his full-time caregiver, and the home, built specifically for Michael’s challenges, provides some much-needed support and relief.