Gary Sinise

Personal touches matter.

I started by just a lot of personal touches, going out to the war zones and patting people on the back and shaking hands and taking pictures and sitting down and having dinner with them.

That meant a lot to them, just to know that somebody cares.

know that somebody in the country who's benefiting from what they're doing to protect and defend this, that it matters to that person.

I try to let our service members know that their service matters and to let our fellow citizens know that there are a lot of ways that you can show your appreciation.

Yeah, so this is the Families of Our Fallen Heroes program that we have.

It started 20 years ago by some folks who wanted to, some veterans in California, they wanted to do something.

This is 2006.

You know, we've been in Iraq now for three years.

We've been in Afghanistan for five.

We lost, you know, we're losing folks.

A lot of children, you know, struggling and suffering.

And so they wanted to do something that would...

uh, help, help the kids through difficult times.

So right before Christmas time, they, uh, they were, they raised some money and they were able to bring, you know, a bunch of families with kids to Anaheim, uh, to Disneyland and all expense paid.

Um, Southwest airlines was involved, uh, helping to provide some transportation.

Um,

They did one event where they brought the kids and they videotaped it.

And right after that event, which was December of 06, they contacted me.

I was shooting CSI New York.