Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service(88)

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 eyes, 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.