How Gary Sinise, 10,000 fans and a Naperville mom came together

Sometimes it starts with a whisper.

It plays at the corner of your mind, teasing you with possibilities.

What if I can really do some good? What if I can really help?

Debi Rickert heard the whisper. It was early 2003 and the Naperville mom was thinking about her then 20-year-old son, Dan, a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the other men and women who were willing to put themselves in harm's way to serve their country.

You could debate the merits of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan forever, she knew, but these young people already had made up their minds.

"It really opened my eyes to the kids who were making these decisions," she says now. "These kids were saying, 'I think my country needs me and I'm going.'"

Rickert wanted to get involved and started putting together care packages to send to our troops overseas. She and another Naperville mom, Joanne Bradna, began donating their time - maybe 30 hours a week - to stuff the boxes with dry foods, drink mixes and letters of support.

They worked at Rickert's dining room table and in her basement and called their effort Operation Support Our Troops - Illinois.

During that first year, whenever their fledgling effort began to wobble, they learned about their own tenacity and the kindness of others who came to their aid.

"Every time we think we have nowhere to go - we're out of stuff or out of money - something happens," she said then.

Now, six years and more than 25,000 cartons of supplies later, those lessons remain.

The organization that was born in Rickert's home has grown to include two warehouses and a $1.5 million annual budget.

The care packages are still at the heart of the things, but the group also offers response and support teams for families of the deployed and the fallen; helps Hines VA Hospital; assists military units in the field with special needs; and even provides grant money to other organizations.

You could see how her ideas had taken hold on a recent Saturday when Rickert and her group played host to more than 10,000 people at the fourth annual Rockin' for the Troops benefit concert at Cantigny Park in Wheaton.

You could hear it, too, when TV and movie star Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band took the stage to culminate the daylong festival of music and other events to honor our men and women in the armed services.

Only it wasn't a whisper any more. It was a full-throated roar.

A summer tradition

It's been a couple days since the concert and you can hear it in her voice - Debi Rickert is still pumped.

The official numbers haven't been compiled yet, but organizers say they sold all 10,000 tickets for Rockin' for the Troops and that doesn't include the military folks and dignitaries who got in free.

This is the fourth straight year Sinise has performed at the outdoor festival and it has gotten bigger every year.

"For a lot of people, it's become a summer tradition," Rickert says. "Some people call it a patriotic Woodstock in Wheaton."

The first three Rockin' concerts combined to raise more than $1 million, she says, and she expects this year's to add at least another $400,000.

The good news for those who keep track of such things is that the vast majority of the proceeds - 93 percent - goes directly into programs for the troops. Only 7 percent is earmarked for administrative costs.

"If we have a choice between using a capable volunteer or hiring someone, we almost always use the volunteer," she says.

The big draw, of course, was Sinise, who in addition to his work in movies such as "Forrest Gump" and on TV in "CSI: NY" has become a regular on USO tours. In a Daily Herald interview last week, Sinise sang Rickert's praises and said he loved the Cantigny venue.

His concert ended a day that started around noon and included everything from the unveiling of a new Bob Hope postage stamp to a sneak peek at the trailer for a documentary about the actor and his band.

Sinise and his group, performing before a crowd that included his parents, played for more than two hours.

"Gary was on," Rickert says. "Other than playing for the troops themselves, he said he loves playing here the most because it's such a great crowd."

Rickert knows not everyone in the Cantigny throng believed in the war effort, but she's convinced they all believed in the troops - and that's what really matters.

"I really do believe the people in this area get it," she says.

Clouds and tears

When you organize an outdoor concert and invite 10,000 people, you worry about all kinds of stuff. Rickert says she kept watching the sky and the way the storm clouds insisted on building to her left and right.

"Look at those clouds over there," she said at one point. "Does that look like a storm to you?"

"Don't worry about that," her companion said, pointing in the opposite direction. "It looks like a tornado over there."

Somehow, though, the threat of bad weather remained just that - a threat.

"It was as if there was a shield over us," she says.

There was one thing, though, that slipped past Rickert and even days after the event it makes her voice catch.

It was just before Sinise was going to perform and someone called her on stage to ask about the whereabouts of her son.

She was a little perplexed. Everybody in the organization knows Dan is serving in Iraq, she thought. Everybody knows he won't be home until September. Why are they asking me this in front of all these people?

And then she looked up at the giant screen and saw the Webcam image from Iraq and there was Dan. She could see him, but all he could see was the mass of people spread across the Cantigny lawn.

Rickert was speechless. Dan couldn't see her, but he knew why.

"OK, Mom," he said, "stop crying."

Sometimes it starts with a whisper. On this night, for Debi Rickert, it ended with a tear.

  <p class="factboxtextbold12col"><b>For more informatio</b>n on Operation Support Our Troops - Illinois, or to learn how to help, visit <a href="http://www.osotil.org" target="new">www.osotil.org</a>.</p>