Aside from being an actor, Gary Sinise is also very devoted to supporting veterans and their families. For example, he founded the Gary Sinise Foundation which honors defenders, veterans, and first responders. “While we can never do enough for our defenders and their loved ones, we can always do a little more,” is their motto.

You’ll probably recognize Sinise from his brilliant role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, a disabled war veteran, but you can also find him in countless seasons of popular police shows such as CSI: New York. Helping veterans and their families is always something that the man has been passionate about, and his latest act is truly heartwarming.

The actor took over a thousand children of fallen soldiers to Disney World and paid all of their tickets.

The whole thing was organized by the Gary Sinise Foundation and they regularly hold events to help heroes in need and their families. These are American heroes, and he feels it’s the least we can do to say ‘thank you’.

Taking kids to the most magical place in the world is a tradition that the organization has started in 2017, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

It’s very clear that the famous actor is incredibly passionate about the whole thing, and all he wants to do is support the families, especially when their loved ones are unable to return home. Taking kids to Disney World is called the “snowball express” program.

Every child receives a five-night stay at Disney World with everything included, and for them, it’s a truly magical lifetime experience.

The foundation already paid for more than 1750 stays at Disney World.

The most important thing about the snowball express program is to let the kids remember that they’re never alone. They also give them a chance to honor and remember their fallen loved ones, and it’s a sort of ritual to help them heal and bond with others.

“The most important thing about [Snowball Express] is that these children don’t feel alone. There’s a lot of healing and a lot of bonding and a lot of friendship that goes on that helps them through the rest of the year,” Sinise said to CBS Los Angeles.

One thing they always do on these trips is placing flags in remembrance of the fallen soldiers.

The foundation always makes sure to bring enough stars and stripes to honor all of the loved ones who didn’t make it back, and it’s a confronting yet impressive sight to behold. Most recently, more than 600 flags were seen at the special remembrance place at Disney World.

This is just one of the foundation’s many heartwarming projects to support veterans and first responders.

They initially started out in 2011 by building homes for wounded vets, and over the years, they’ve given out no less than 200,000 free meals to our heroes in need. In 2019, Sinise decided to write about his passion for helping veterans, titled ‘Grateful American: A Journey From Self to Service’.

“I’ve been very, very active with military and veterans support for many years. I’ve engaged with many different military charities. I’ve been all around the world. I’ve been to the war zones. I’ve been to the hospitals. I’ve been involved with many projects to support the men and women who serve.”

“I thought maybe I’d start to document that in some kind of way, through a book or essays or whatever. And then I started to think, “Well, how did I kind of get to all that?””

“There is a great chapter in the book called “Turning Point.” It talks about that moment in my life where I turned kind of away from just this focus on my career to this much broader effort to try to help our veterans and support our military. That’s turned into just a full-time thing,” Sinise said in an interview with Daily Signal.

Gary Sinise and his charity are incredibly inspirational, and it’s heartwarming to see someone use their fame and money for such an amazing cause!

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Source: DailySignal, Gary Sinise Foundation, BoredPanda