Gary has made dozens of trips to war zones to entertain the
troops with his Lt. Dan Band. He's an approachable guy, and has had substantive conversations with hundreds of soldiers. He
repeatedly hears stories of how helpless they feel around forlorn chldren in the war zones. Gary found out that most
of the schools had next to no supplies-- and he decided to do something about it.
With his friend Laura Hilldenbrand, he created Operation Iraqi
Children (which has now expanded globally to "Operation International Children," as a conduit to give Americans a way
to reach out to the children and support troop morale at the same time.
Since it's beginning in early 2004, OIC has delivered more
than 200 thousand school supply kits, along with more than half a million toys and thousands of Arabic-language books, shoes,
blankets, backpacks and sets of sports equipment-- all of which has been distributed to children by our military personnel.
It's a feel-good operation.
You can send OIC donations to the warehouse
at:
1529 Atlantic, North Kansas City, MO 64116
If you make a monetary donation, 100% will go to purchase
supplies for children and offset shipping costs. You can build and send school supply kits yourself, or start a school supply
kit drive in your community. You can help our troops foster goodwill between themselves and Iraqis in war-torn villages and
bring brighter futures to children in desperate need .
Gary Sinise is a native
Chicagoan who founded the city's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He's a stage actor and an 'actor's actor.' His present gig as
lead in CSI doesn't leave him much free time. But regularly, after the last day of shooting a show, he'll pack his bags and
fly over to be with and to entertain our military in Iraq. He's a 'hands-on' guy... and he's making a huge difference.
