Inspire awards 2008 honorees - gary sinise - aarp the magazine

Gary Sinise would like your money. But what he really wants are your rulers. And your crayons. And some nice sharp pencils would be great, too. That's because Sinise, the poker-faced

cop on TV's _CSI: New York_, is the driving force behind Operation Iraqi Children, a nationwide effort to send school supplies to kids who dodge bullets and bombs on their way to class

in war-torn Iraq. More than 200,000 children have received the school kits—solicited by Sinise's charitable organization and distributed by U.S. soldiers. "The way we hear it, we

think everybody over there's got a gun and everybody's shooting at each other," says Sinise, 52, in his flat midwestern drawl. "But there are millions of average people

like you and me just trying to make a living and send their kids to school." Since 2004, Sinise's group has raised more than $1 million, largely through its website. Sinise also

has been to Iraq three times, performing for the troops with his rock group, the Lt. Dan Band (named for the _Forrest Gump_ character that earned him an Oscar nomination in 1994). "I

just feel our defenders need our support," says Sinise. "There are serious people out there who want to destroy this country. If we didn't have these volunteers, what would we

do?" He pauses and laughs, as if at the sheer audacity of the notion. "What would we do?"