If you missed Gary’s segments on CSB Early Show this week, read full transcript of his interview HereRead accompanying article:
Gary Sinise’s Gift to Iraq

Video of interview (click Early Show and scroll down to find Gary’s segment): Here

We’ve recently been contacted by Rosemary, who’s offering for sale a stylish and practical item to benefit Operation Iraqi Children. It’s a clip-on keyring that hangs freely on your purse, pocket, backpack and briefcase and this particular one sports the instantly-recognizable ‘Support Our Troops’ Yellow Ribbon. One can be yours for a contribution of $7 to Operation Iraqi Children! For a photo, visit the manufacturer’s site here — the keyring being offered is the yellow ribbon one a the bottom of the page. To obtain one of these nifty items, contact Rosemary directly at sketchroe@cox.net.

Gary was recently featured in Newsweek as one of America’s Best for his work with Operation Iraqi Children. Congratulations to Gary and kudos to Newsweek for recognizing this worthy effort.

As some of you know, Gary has become very involved with the plight of children in Iraq. Here is some information if you’d like to help out! Gary will be on The Today Show on March 15 to announce this project and discuss it further:

Actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) announce the launch of Operation Iraqi Children, a program that will enable Americans to send school supplies and Arabic translations of Seabiscuit to Iraqi children.

The Need. During and after Operation Iraqi Freedom, American soldiers passing through Iraqi villages were horrified at the squalor of Iraqi schools, which had been neglected under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Corralled in sweltering buildings without air conditioning, fans, windows, solid floors, or even toilets, Iraqi students lack even the rudimentary supplies that American children take for granted. Libraries are almost nonexistent. Without these basic tools of education, Iraqi children face an uphill struggle to learn. “Imagine sending your child to a school in which there are virtually no books, no pencils, no crayons, no paper,” says Hillenbrand. “This is the reality for Iraqi children. The future of the Iraqi nation is being squandered for lack of basic school supplies.”

Moved by the plight of these children, many American soldiers have taken it upon themselves to help. Working in small groups on their days off, soldiers scrounge up supplies and take them to villages, sometimes coming under fire as they work to reconstruct the schools and deliver learning tools to Iraqi kids. Their efforts have met with immense gratitude from local Iraqis and their children, who now have access to the basic tools of education for the first time in their lives. “I have seen Iraqi kids climbing on our soldiers and hugging them and kissing them,” remembers Sinise, who recently accompanied Army soldiers to a severely dilapidated school they were rebuilding. “I have seen their smiling faces and their attempts to say , ‘I love you’ in broken English. The folks I saw had hope in their eyes and gratitude in their hearts for what was done for them.”

Unfortunately, the need for help is so great and widespread, encompassing some 1,500 schools, that the soldiers’ efforts cannot possibly answer the entire problem. “Our soldiers have freed the Iraqi nation from tyranny,” says Hillenbrand. “We have an obligation to the Iraqi people, and to the men and women who gave their lives for this cause, to complete this mission by ensuring that Iraqis have the means to take advantage of their new freedom.”

The Answer. Inspired by their conversations with Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers as well as Sinise’s recent tour of the region, Sinise and Hillenbrand founded Operation Iraqi Children to provide concerned Americans with a means to reach out to Iraqi kids and help support our soldiers’ efforts to assist the Iraqi people. The operation consists of two programs:

* Through the school supplies program, American children can help their Iraqi counterparts by gathering school supplies in school-wide drives, then sending them to a military base in Iraq, where our soldiers will take them to Iraqi villages.

* Through the Seabiscuit program, operated through Thoroughbred Charities of America, Americans can make tax-deductible donations that will be used to purchase very low cost Arabic translations of the best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend. This program is fully non- profit; 100% of donations will go to purchase books, and all author royalties will be reinvested in more books for the children. Like the school supplies, Arabic copies of Seabiscuit will be delivered to Iraqi schoolchildren by U.S. military personnel.

Sinise, Hillenbrand and the organizers of Operation Iraqi Children believe that this program can help more than the Iraqi children. By bringing Americans and Iraqis together and demonstrating American devotion to the welfare of the Iraqi people, the program can foster understanding and goodwill between our nations. “Every time a book or a box of school supplies is delivered by our troops it will be another small victory for them in helping win the minds and hearts of the Iraqis,” says Sinise. “It is a beautiful way to begin a relationship with the future leaders of Iraq. They have been forgotten for so long. Now there is a chance for them.”

As of March 15th for more information and details on how you can help, go to www.operationiraqichildren.org.

Information about the two programs.

Before we joined forces there were two seperate projects with similar objectives. Operation Seabiscuit and Operation Iraqi School Supplies.

The following is information about Operation Seabiscuit that will appear on the Operation Iraqi Children website.

Operation Iraqi Children: The Seabiscuit program

The genesis. The Seabiscuit program began with an email. In December, 2003, Army Lt. Col. Sherman McGrew, stationed in Balad, Iraq, sent Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand a note telling her about how he had taken a copy of her book with him on a trip to bring medical care to girls at a dilapidated village school.

The girls took interest in the book, so McGrew sat them down, and through a translator, told them the story of Seabiscuit. The story, McGrew found, had special appeal to the children, who lived in a culture with an ancient, flourishing tradition of horse racing, and whose homeland, freed from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, was just opening up to the freedom and possibility that form the themes of Seabiscuit’s narrative. In the girls, who had not been exposed to books, McGrew found a rapt audience. He told them that one day maybe they could grow up to write best selling books, and idea that met with wonder among the girls, who were accustomed to a society that was severely oppressive to women. McGrew’s only regret, he wrote, was that he couldn’t give the book to the girls in their native Arabic.

The idea. McGrew’s story was deeply moving to Hillenbrand, who began looking into ways to get her book to the children in their native language. After contacting her Arabic language publisher, Nahdet Misr in Egypt, she arranged to purchase copies for the small group of children McGrew had met. McGrew asked if he could purchase some for other children in neighboring villages, and the project began to grow. Word of the effort began to spread, and soon Hillenbrand found herself deluged in emails from people who wanted to make donations to buy more books. Military personnel, distressed over the lack of books, libraries and basic school supplies for Iraqi children, were eager to expand the program and help deliver the books to the children, and arrangements were made to airlift the books from Egypt to Iraq. Officials at Nahdet Misr were equally enthusiastic, offering to sell the book to donators at a large discount. Thoroughbred Charities of America, the largest charity in the horse racing industry, offered to set up an account to take tax-deductible donations for the effort.

A small idea to purchase a handful of books for girls at a single village school had grown into a national drive to bring the book to children across Iraq. “I love to think of these children reading Seabiscuit in their very poor villages and dreaming,” said McGrew. “Who knows what these small seeds planted will bear in twenty or so years?”

In February of 2004, Major Juliann Doris, who was coordinating the effort from Iraq, suggested that Hillenbrand’s program be joined with actor Gary Sinise’s concurrent effort to bring school supplies to Iraqi children. Operation Iraqi Children was born.

How you can help. Even a small donation will make a huge difference. In a special arrangement for Operation Iraqi Children, Egyptian publisher Nahdet Misr is offering the book at a substantial discount: For the first 500 books, the price will be $3.70 per book; for 501 through 1000 books, the price will be $3.30; for 1001 to 3000 books, the price will be $3; and for 3001 books upwards, the price will be $2.75 per book. Each book purchased by supporters of Operation Iraqi Children will be delivered to an Iraqi child age 12 and over by U.S. military personnel. Every penny of your donation will go to purchase books. Hillenbrand is taking no profit from the program; all author royalties will be reinvested in more books for the children.

Donate now! To donate by mail, send a check to

Thoroughbred Charities of America
1341 Bohemia Mill Road
Middletown, DE 19709

All checks must be earmarked Operation Iraqi Children. All donations are tax-deductible.

To donate online by credit card, go to www.operationiraqichildren.org (Opening March 15)

About Thoroughbred Charities of America. Since its inception in 1990, Thoroughbred Charities has donated in excess of $7 million in grant commitments to nearly 100 equine organizations. Thoroughbred Charities is the leading charity in the thoroughbred industry. Grants are awarded for equine rescue, retirement, medical research, and therapeutic riding programs as well as scholarships and rehabilitation programs for people who work with racehorses. The December 2003 Auction & Gala grossed a record $1.5 million, grants will be awarded in the spring.

Operation Iraqi School Supplies was started by Gary Sinse and the following is information that will be available on the school supplies page of the website.

Operation Iraqi Children: the School Supplies program

I know that some of you have already received lots of information about this.

The website we are putting together will be up by the 15th of March. I will be announcing it on the Today Show at that time and following with several other interviews about it.

I will be happy to forward more info if you would like. This is a tremendous project that will help our soldiers in their efforts in Iraq and we can all play a part in turning things around there. It is no small task but if you want to help here is one way you can do it.

The thing that needs to be emphasized is that our soldiers are doing extraordinary work over there and the concept for sending school supplies was born out of my feeling of wanting to help them help the Iraqis and seeing with my own eyes just how little they have at these schools and how much they are trying to make things better.

Our soldiers are helping the Iraqis to rebuild the schools but the Iraqi’s still need basic school supplies which our soldiers cannot provide.

It is also born out of a need to get more of the American people involved and aware that, while there are bad things happening and our soldiers are still getting hurt, they are accomplishing great things and it is important that more people in the US become aware that their sacrifices are not in vain. The American people see negative news on a daily basis and have no idea that what this President did by going into Iraq not only removed a great menace from the region but it has born enormous fruit and truly opened up possibilities that have never existed there before. We are in contact daily with sources in Iraq who are thrilled with the work that is being done and if more people knew about it and understood it I know that they would be very interested in contributing time, energy and even money to help out. I believe that the American people are willing and ready to help but they need guidance. Operation Iraqi Children is just one way for our people to help their people and by doing so we support our soldiers in this valiant and noble effort.

We owe it to the families of those soldiers who have fallen in this fight to make this mission a success. They will never again see or hold their loved one but by seeing an Iraqi child grow up in a free society where they are allowed to learn, read a book like Seabiscuit and use pens and pencils sent by the children of the United States, they will know that what they have sacrificed has made our country safer, given the world a new chance and that the people of Iraq will remain free.

Hopefully that will bring them some comfort and they will forever know that all Americans, and the people of Iraq, are grateful for what they have given up for us.

I have seen and talked to some of the widows of our fallen soldiers. They are patriotic Americans who know that their husbands are heroes and that they died to make the world a better and safer place.

These efforts by the Coalition forces to turn Iraq into a success story will help to validate these sacrifices. We can help in this and the American people can particpate in the rebuilding of this nation and help our soldiers in their work there. Every time a copy of Seabiscuit or a box of school supplies is delivered by our troops it will be another small victory for them in helping to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis.

We know in our hearts that the majority of Americans are good, caring and generous people who love freedom and what it can bring. Our soldiers have brought these values to the people of a nation that was once our enemy and we now have the possiblity to become great allies for the future the way we did with Germany and Japan. The American people just need to be made aware that there are avenues for them to help. It is hard to watch the negative news from Iraq on a daily basis. By getting involved with Operartion Iraqi Children they will be able to channel their energies in a positive way to help make this situation better and they will know that there are good things happening that are not reported by the media.

We just need a little extra help.

So remember that Operation Iraqi Children has the potential to do so much good.

It can bring Americans together in support of our troops and help the children of Iraq who have been neglected by their own government for far too long.

Thanks,
Gary