Gary Sinise’s Life Honored
We seldom find a person who will dedicate his life to help others. And that is exactly what Gary Sinise’s life goal is. He has surely gone above and beyond to help the militaries and their families. And thankfully, all his hard work and efforts to help will do not go unnoticed and they continue to be honored.
Gary Sinise is known for his memorable movie characters. He has been in a number of movies like Apollo 13, Ransom, Snake Eyes, Impostor, The Green Mile, Mission to Mars, and The Human Stain. But through the years, he has always been known as Lieutenant Dan from ‘Forrest Gump.
And this role earned him recognition not only as an actor but also for establishing a connection with the servicemen and women in the military community.
His foundation, the Gary Sinise Foundation website states: “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.
Over the past 25 years, Sinise has worked closely with Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization for disabled military veterans of the United States Armed Forces, to better the lives of these national heroes and their families. ”
Even offscreen, the actor has formed an undeniable connection to the veterans. This is something that is really close to his heart because his grandfather was a veteran who served in World War I. Also, his two uncles were soldiers in World War II while his dad served in the Korean War.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Sinise shared his journey. He said, “I’ve found that service is the best way to heal.
If every person in every neighborhood around the country took a little bit of responsibility for patting these folks on the back, all the problems that we hear about with regards to veterans not getting services or falling through the cracks would disappear.
If citizens would look at their freedom providers in a little bit different way. ”
Also through his efforts, the foundation served more than 175,000 meals to defenders all across the nation. They also awarded more than 230 relief grants to police officers, firefighters, and EMTs. the foundation also helped modify more than 15 homes to be able to adapt to the veterans’ special needs.
One of the recipients of this effort is Jonathan Blank. In 2010, Jonathon Blank, 30, had a hard time coping with the loss of his legs. But thanks to The Gary Sinise Foundation, the veteran will now have a new and specialized adapted smart home to make his life so much easier. He applied to be part of the “R. I.
S. E. Program” offered by the foundation to help build Smart Homes for veterans and first responders.
And just last year, Sinise donated over $30 million for different programs to help those in need. And his efforts surely deserves special recognition.
That is why this year, he received the Patriot Award at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. He was given the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the highest award given by the organization.
Other than that, he also received other awards like the Bob Hope Medal from the Association of the U. S. Army, the George Catlett Marshall Medal from the Association of the US Army, as well as the Spirit of Hope Award from the Department of Defense.
The philanthropist was also named an honorary Chief Petty Officer by the United States Navy and was pinned as an honorary Marine. And now, Gary Sinise received the Humanitarian Award from the Location Managers Guild International at the 7th LMGI Awards.
