Gary Sinise and the Lieutenant Dan Band are returning to Cantigny Park in Wheaton on Saturday, July 11th, for the Rockin’ for Our Vets summer concert benefiting the West Suburban Foundation for Disabled Veterans. Doors open at 2:00 p.m. and the band takes the stage at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are fifty dollars and available at wsfdv.org. Sinise joined Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss the concert, the Gary Sinise Foundation’s fifteenth anniversary, and the late comedian Tom Dreesen.
Sinise said the Cantigny venue holds a special place for him, having played there roughly ten years in a row for Operation Support Our Troops America before taking a hiatus. He returned last year at the invitation of Michelle Senatore of the West Suburban Foundation for Disabled Veterans and said the concert was wonderful, prompting him to come back again this year. He noted the visit is part of a packed weekend that includes a performance at Fort Hood in Texas the day before and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico the day after.
The Gary Sinise Foundation is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary on June 30th, with a gala event on the 27th marking the milestone. Sinise said the foundation has raised upwards of $700 million since its founding and deployed those resources broadly across the veteran, military, and first responder communities. The foundation’s mission encompasses support for active duty service members and their families, wounded veterans, families of fallen heroes, and first responders. Programs include entertainment on military bases and in military hospitals, which Sinise has been doing personally for more than twenty years, performing hundreds of concerts at installations worldwide including in active war zones.
He described September 11th as the decisive turning point in his life, a chapter he titled Turning Point in his book Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service. Before that day, his focus was primarily on building his acting career and Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, where so many of his contemporaries got their start. He had veterans in his own family and had developed a connection to the wounded veteran community through playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, but September 11th redirected his energy fully toward service work. The involvement grew steadily until starting his own foundation became the obvious next step. He said the foundation supports other organizations doing good work in areas where his own programs do not reach, allowing the impact to extend well beyond what any single nonprofit could accomplish alone. He noted that as a nonprofit, the foundation is always seeking additional resources as needs change and the mission expands.
On the passing of Tom Dreesen, Sinise called him one of his dearest friends and said he is very sad to have lost him. He described Dreesen as seeming indestructible, a fighter who had beaten cancer multiple times before the disease finally overwhelmed him at eighty-six. Sinise said Dreesen was hilarious and generous with his time, donating it repeatedly over his career to charitable causes he believed in. He had been an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation for fourteen of its fifteen years, signing on from the very beginning. Sinise said Dreesen served in the Navy and cared deeply about the men and women who served the country, making his commitment to the foundation’s mission personal and genuine.