Interview with Jim Ravella
Photos courtesy of the Gary Sinise Foundation

Jim Ravella, senior vice president of programs for the Gary Sinise Foundation, discusses how the actor’s nonprofit honors and serves our nation’s heroes.

Tell us about Gary’s history of helping others:
Gary has been honoring veterans since the early eighties. After his portrayal of the wounded Vietnam Veteran Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump in 1994, his connection with disabled veterans was deepened. The organization Disabled American Veterans (DAV) reached out, and that relationship allowed him to start supporting wounded veterans. After 9/11, he went on several USO Celebrity Handshake Tours and, in 2003, he created the Lt. Dan Band to entertain the troops at home and abroad in addition to his frequent visits to the VA hospitals. In 2004, he cofounded Operation Iraqi Children, which provided school supplies to our deployed military units to hand out to Iraqi youth and, eventually, other countries in need.

He created the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011 to expand on these efforts, support military members, veterans, first responders, and the families of our fallen heroes, and ensure their sacrifices are never forgotten. His motto is “While we can never do enough for our defenders and their loved ones, we can always do a little more.” Gary’s life passion is to give back to those who serve.

How does your organization make a difference?
We help in several ways. For example, through our RISE program—Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment—we build specially adapted, mortgage-free smart homes for severely disabled veterans and first responders, modify existing homes, and supply mobility devices and vehicles. We also offer financial aid, serve meals to military personnel around the world (over one million to date), and help with mental wellness. Through First Responders Outreach, we provide funds, training, and equipment such as ATVs, rescue boats, fire gear, and Jaws of Life for first-responder units, mainly for volunteer fire departments.

In addition, our Snowball Express program takes fallen heroes’ surviving spouses/guardians and children to Walt Disney World every December. The holidays can be hard for these families, so we aim to give them a fun five days while also setting up a Remembrance Garden to honor each of their lost loved ones. It’s all about connection: families who share this unique loss form bonds there. Throughout the year, we do other community events where we bring them together so they can maintain those relationships.

What inspired the Soaring Valor program?
Gary’s two uncles served in WWII: his uncle Jerry was in the Navy, while his uncle Jack was a B-17 navigator who flew thirty missions over Europe. He was able to build a strong relationship with his uncle Jack when he took him to the National WWII Museum. After he passed at the age of ninety, Gary received his uncle’s oral history of his service from the museum. Inspired by their visit together and the video recording, he decided that every veteran of the “Greatest Generation” should have a chance to visit and be honored. From there, our Soaring Valor event was born. A few years into it, we started partnering with high schools to pair students with veterans who visit the museum together. It’s an incredible experience for all who attend.

In addition to sponsoring the event, we sponsor an oral historian at the WWII Museum, who records our nation’s WWII veterans’ stories at the museum or their house. It’s critical that these veterans’ stories are told and archived forever.

How do your foundation’s efforts impact the recipients?
It’s life-changing in many ways. For example, if a veteran or first responder is severely injured, they can’t function the way they did before, nor can their family. Building them a specially americanlifestylemag.com | 29 adapted house can help them move more easily in the wider hallways, access their kids’ rooms to say goodnight, and use the bathroom and kitchen—essentially anything in the house. As a result, they feel like a person, not a burden, and the whole family gains independence. We also connect them with their community by highlighting what we’re doing to help. It brings neighbors together to honor these families and, hopefully, build connections and deeper relationships.

Only 1 percent of people serve. Because of this, the rest of the population tends to be somewhat detached. At the Gary Sinise Foundation, we connect those who have sacrificed so much in the defense of our country and communities with those who want to thank them and remind them they are not alone. As a twenty-seven-year Air Force veteran myself with stepchildren who lost their father, I can tell you from firsthand experience that it matters.

How have people responded to Gary’s mission?
The American people enable us to do all this. When they’re aware of a need, they’re very generous and supportive. That’s probably the greatest joy of my job: watching fellow citizens respond and thank our heroes. It means so much to the thousands of families who serve.

For more info, visit garysinisefoundation.org