By Tom Keyser
The Times-Union
ALBANY, N.Y. — In his first concert tour since being injured March 30 in a car wreck, Gary Sinise and his band will perform Saturday at the Washington Avenue Armory to raise money to build a home for a disabled veteran from Nassau.
A concert tour? Sinise is an actor, not a musician, right? Actually, he is both, and the name of his band encapsulates that — Lt. Dan Band. Sinise played Lt. Dan Taylor in the Oscar-winning movie “Forrest Gump.”
But beyond the acting and performing, Sinise, star of the CBS series “CSI: NY,” is a tireless supporter of veterans, first responders and children in ravaged parts of the world.
When he was involved in the accident in Washington, D.C., he was on his way to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to spend the day visiting veterans, and the next day the Lt. Dan Band was to play in Martinsville, Va., to raise money for a triple-amputee veteran wounded in Afghanistan.
In a telephone interview from his home in California, he told the Times Union that he was a passenger in the back seat of a vehicle that was rammed from behind.
“I can only say what people have told me, because I don’t remember it,” he said of the wreck. “We were standing still waiting for somebody to cross the road, and I’m told that we were struck from behind, that the car that hit us was going pretty fast. Next thing I know I’m waking up in the emergency room.”
He declined to specify his injuries, other than to say he was hurt bad enough to spend a couple of days in the hospital. Nothing was broken, he said.
“I’m in physical therapy now, doing what the doctors and therapists tell me to do,” he said. “I just want to be able to hold my bass, play the bass, on April 27, and I’m going to be able to do that.”
The band will play a show in Brooklyn on Friday as a benefit to raise money to build a home for another triple-amputee wounded in Afghanistan. The next night in Albany, the Lt. Dan Band will play to raise money to assist retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joseph Wilkinson.
After four tours to war zones in the Middle East, Wilkinson, 33, is wheelchair-bound because of what is believed to be exposure to toxic chemicals. A joint effort between the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the concert will go a long way toward building a customized home in Averill Park for Wilkinson, his wife and their three children.
“The important thing to me is that people come out to celebrate this local hero,” Sinise said. “It’s not that I’m coming. I’m coming to Albany to support Joe.”
Tickets cost $30 for general admission and $50 for VIP seating in the first 10 rows. Every penny from ticket sales goes toward building the house, said Catherine Christman, a spokesperson for Tunnel to Towers, a foundation formed in memory of Stephen Siller, a New York City firefighter who died Sept. 11, 2001. The foundation assists injured firefighters and soldiers and children who have lost a parent in the line of duty.
So that more money can go to help veterans, Christman said, Sinise pays the musicians, sound and support crew and all related expenses out of his own pocket. That does not surprise those who know him.
“For Gary, philanthropy is a passion,” said Laura Hillenbrand, best-selling author of “Seabiscuit” and “Unbroken” and co-founder with Sinise of yet another charity, Operation International Children. “He is a singularly compassionate, wondrously generous man, and he uses everything in his power to help others.
“He is particularly moved by the sacrifices of the men and women in our armed services, and by the price they pay for those sacrifices. He is ardently dedicated to doing everything he can for them, and he exhausts himself to do so. I’ve never seen anyone more dedicated to a cause.”
Operation International Children works with the military to deliver school supplies and such items as toys, blankets and shoes to children in war-torn or disaster-stricken countries. Sinise became interested in that in 2003 during his second trip to Iraq with the USO. He visited a school, refurbished by American troops, and saw the soldiers interacting with the local children.
Sinise had worked with Vietnam veterans’ groups since the early 1980s, but after 9/11 he became impassioned about supporting the troops.
He visited Iraq several times in 2003, shaking soldiers’ hands and posing for pictures. In 2004 he took a group of musicians he had been jamming with — Sinise started playing the guitar when he was 10 — named it the Lt. Dan Band and started playing for the troops. It evolved into a 12-piece, high-energy cover band that plays a wide range of songs by such artists as Stevie Wonder, Journey, Beyonce and the Zac Brown Band.
“I just don’t think we should ever take for granted those who go out and defend us,” Sinise said. “It’s a dangerous business, and sometimes they get hurt. I’ve had a lot of compassion for those who get injured and have to live the rest of their lives with this constant reminder of their deployment to a dangerous place.
“So I created a foundation that could support them and help them and serve them and honor them with whatever needs that we can meet. Sometimes that includes entertainment. Sometimes it includes raising money. Sometimes it includes building homes.”
Sinise’s foundation and its partners have bought an 8-acre, wooded plot in Averill Park for Wilkinson and his family. The foundations hope to break ground on a house in the fall. They’ve built or are building homes for a dozen disabled veterans across the country, with more to come.
Wilkinson, who expects to be in the front row for the Lt. Dan Band show, said he still can’t believe, or adequately express, his appreciation.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “There are no words for it.”
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