Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service(87)

In 2009, I had an incredibly busy year. So many different volunteer projects and events, including an announcement on September 11 at the Beacon Theater in New York City that 9/11 was now a federally designated National Day of Service and Remembrance. In 2002 David Paine and Jay Winuk, whose brother Glen had been killed at the World Trade Center, had founded a group called “One Day’s Pay” to encourage our fellow citizens to devote that single day’s pay to service and volunteerism. Their idea was that this tragic day could not only be a day of remembrance of the terrible loss and of honoring those who perished that day, but also of memorializing the incredible spirit of the American people coming together during that time to help one another. I wanted to support them and joined the group’s advisory board in 2004 to help promote this idea.

In 2007, they changed the name of the organization to “My Good Deed” and a few years later—eight years after the attack on our country—I was thrilled to help David and Jay make the announcement at the sold-out event that this day had become an official day of service. The effort continues today on the anniversary of the attacks, under the name “9/11 Day.” By reaching out to help others, we honor all those who lost their lives that day. In so many ways, this concept resonated with me, as I felt called to service and volunteerism myself, and I wanted to continue to encourage our fellow citizens to take action. And so, in 2009 I picked up the pace. I did two overseas tours: one in the summer to Korea and Okinawa and another while shooting CSI: NY, when I managed to get time off at Thanksgiving to go to Afghanistan and Germany for three shows and several handshake events. That year alone saw eighteen USO concerts, at home and abroad, plus an additional fourteen military support and charity concerts, as well as many other events, hospital visits, and fund-raisers.

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.