Gary Sinise in Warrenville, kicking off effort for troops
Gary Sinise likes bringing his Lt. Dan Band to Cantigny every summer for a concert.
He especially likes where the money raised by the event goes.
He just wishes the impetus for it all didn't exist anymore.
"Who would have thought we'd still be at war, going on 10 years now in Afghanistan, and it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon," said Sinise, better known as an actor for his roles in movies like Forrest Gump or television shows like CSI: New York.
Sinise was at Navistar's headquarters in Warrenville Friday to help kickoff the ticket sales for his annual Rockin' for the Troops concert, now in its fifth year. The truck and engine manufacturing giant is the chief sponsor of the concert. Money from ticket sales goes to the Illinois chapter of Operation Support Our Troops, which sends care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nearly $2 million has been raised since the inception of the Rockin' for the Troops concert, said the group's president, Deborah Richert. The money has allowed her corps of volunteers to ship more than 725,000 care packages to the troops. She praised Sinise for continuing his commitment to the cause.
"Gary has been a tireless advocate for our troops, traveling around the country and to the front lines to entertain and comfort our troops," Richert said.
Sinise said he deals with a number of organizations like Operation Support Our Troops and has seen the appreciation from military personnel who receive the packages.
"I've seen the value of not just receiving these supplies, but the gesture," he said. "And we are all beneficiaries of the freedom they provide for us."
Sinise also gave the first two tickets to his July 17 show at the 550-acre Wheaton park to Nancy Baier of Libertyville. Baier is a longtime Operation Support Our Troops volunteer, and also the mother of two Marines - Sgt. Mike Baier and Lance Cpl. Matt Baier - and her husband Tom is due back home Saturday after a four-month tour as an Army surgeon in Afghanistan. It's the 57-year-old doctor's second combat tour since he walked into a recruiter's office three years ago and asked how he could join, his wife said. The first tour was in Iraq.
"The Army took a chance on him," she said.
Baier was excited about the tickets, but said she plans on remaining at the volunteer post she has manned at the concert for the past three years selling raffle tickets. This year, a customized Harley-Davidson motorcycle is being raffled away.
Baier said her husband's absence this time was harder than the first time. They will be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary next week.
"He was in a little more volatile region this time and before we could talk or write or Skype regularly, but it's not like that in Afghanistan," she said. "There was better communication when he was in Iraq."
For more information about the concert, visit rockinforthetroops.org.