Gary Sinise Talks His Foundation’s Snowball Express Bringing Gold Star Families to Disney World | In Studio - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

"You cannot underestimate the power of bringing all these kids together in a happy environment because we're trying to bring joy to them right before the holidays, which is a difficult time for a child who's lost a parent," Sinise told THR.

Transcript

00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullo from The Hollywood Reporter, and we're in studio with Gary Sinise.

00:08Hi, how are you? I'm good. Thanks for coming. Merry Christmas, Gary. Well, to you too. Here we go.

00:14It's the holiday season. It's the end of the year, which went by very, very quickly. Yes,

00:20and we are in your office at the Gary Sinise Foundation, and we're here to talk about the

00:27Snowball Express, this amazing experience that you had this year. Now, how did you, did the Gary

00:32Sinise Foundation partner up with the Snowball Express? Let me track a little bit of the history

00:37of Snowball. Snowball was started in 2006 as, you know, by a few people that wanted to focus on

00:46healing and to help the children of our fallen heroes. So they put an event together down at

00:54Disneyland, and with the help of American Airlines, they brought several hundred children actually

01:01to Disneyland and gave them an event. And then after that event, they wanted to do another one

01:08the following year in 2007. They came to me actually in, oh, it was maybe spring of 2007,

01:15just not too long after the event in 2006, and showed me a video of what the event was. And I was

01:27very, very actively involved with supporting military families and veterans and didn't have my own

01:34foundation yet. But this was something that I felt very passionate about. So I signed up to support the

01:42next event, which was 2000, December of 2007. And American Airlines signed up again to provide travel

01:52support for the children. And we brought all these children down to Anaheim to Disneyland again, did

01:59another event there. I donated my band and went to play for the kids. And that was my first event. And I was

02:08hooked after that, just seeing the children, the healing power of what the event was doing for the

02:15kids who were all coming together at the same time, all going through the same thing. They're all dealing

02:20with the grief and the loss of a loved one, a mom or a dad who have died in military service. And all these

02:29kids are going through the same thing. So the power of all of them in the same place at the same time,

02:36many of them, hundreds of them, was very healing for a lot of them. And we played a concert and I

02:43just kept going. At this point, I had had a foundation that had been around for six years or so,

02:51Gary Sinise Foundation. We were fairly strong. And we decided to fold Snowball Express into the Gary

02:59Sinise Foundation as its own program. So we dissolved the 501c3 of Snowball Express. Now it's the Gary Sinise

03:06Foundation Snowball Express program. And this year we took over a thousand children, 1722 Gold Star

03:18family members in all, with the help of American Airlines, providing all the travel support to Disney

03:25World. And we just finished that event, you know, on the 12th. The kids went home. You cannot

03:32underestimate the power of bringing all these kids together in a happy environment. Because

03:39we're trying to bring joy to them right before the holidays, right before the Christmas holidays,

03:44which is a difficult time for a child who's lost a parent. So bringing all these kids together

03:50at the happiest place on earth down there at Disney World was very, very special.

03:56It's not just a trip to Disney World. There's so much more involved in it. Can you tell me a little

04:01bit about the specific events? Yeah. Well, as I said, there's a lot of healing that goes on. We have

04:07counseling. We have all kinds of communal activities that focus on the healing aspect of a Gold Star

04:20family member who's grieving. But we also want to provide hope and happiness and joy and all of

04:29that. So, you know, when you go to Disney World, part of what we were used to in Dallas was that all

04:36the kids would go here and do something together. And then they would all go here and do something

04:40together. Then they would do this. And then in the hotel, there were all kinds of activities in the hotel

04:47for them, community rooms, teen centers for the older kids, all kinds of things like that.

04:53Well, at Disney, at Disney, what do you want to do? You want to be free to run around and go to the

04:59parks, right? And enjoy the parks. So we made certain activities that were group activities for the

05:04entire group. One of those, uh, was a, uh, one of those, of course, was our opening dinner the night that

05:13everybody got there. And we always have a little show and a dinner, uh, welcome for everybody. But the

05:19following morning, we set up something, uh, on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. And, uh, we had the

05:26park to ourselves. This was early in the morning before the parks were open. And we brought all the

05:31kids there and we marched them down Main Street. We had an event by the flag. And, uh, you can see some of the

05:38video of the kids and the families walking toward the castle on Main Street with cast members, Disney

05:44cast members, who came out, who got up in the morning, come out and celebrate the kids, cheering

05:49them on as they approach the castle. And then there's a ceremony at the castle with a big fireworks

05:55display at the end. This was very, very, and, and the, and the ceremony at the castle was very

06:00healing. The kids were used to, in Dallas, doing something, uh, where we would parade them down the

06:06street in Fort Worth and each child would have a balloon and each child would write a message

06:15to the fallen hero. And at a certain point, they would let these balloons go and, you know,

06:23over a thousand balloons would fly up to heaven. And, um, you can't, you can't let a thousand balloons

06:31go at Disney World. So the, the imagination folks at Disney are, there's nobody better. They, they came

06:37up with some very, uh, a very good way for us to honor the fallen heroes and allow the children to send

06:46those messages. Uh, and, uh, and then they, they lit up the castle and, and blew fireworks off and it was

06:56our opening ceremony for the rest of the, the rest of the event. And then, uh, one of the communal events

07:02is the finale, which is when my, my band played and I bring my band in. So this is, I don't know,

07:09the 12th year I've, I've had the band, uh, at Snowball. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's usually,

07:19I, I think it's, it, it's almost been our final concert of the year for many years.

07:23Uh, and it's one of the most powerful, beautiful ones that we do because we're just playing for the

07:29kids. What were some of your moments, the highlights that stood out to you, your experience?

07:35What did you experience at this event? Oh gosh, you know, it's always, uh, it's always very,

07:42it's heartwarming because it's fun to, it, it makes you feel good to see the kids laughing and having

07:49a fun time. But it's also heartbreaking because you know why they're there. Yeah.

07:53You know, they're there because of loss and grief and, uh, and because they are a military family who's,

08:02uh, paid the ultimate price, you know? So it's heartbreaking in certain ways. I mean, uh, you,

08:09you will see children walking around with, with buttons, you know, with the face of their fallen hero,

08:15their father or whoever it was, you know, um, sometimes they have t-shirts that they have made

08:22with pictures. And, you know, I will see those kids, some, some of the kids I will see every year,

08:29you know, they, they'll, they'll come back and they'll just get a little bit bigger every year

08:34and they'll be standing right in front of me when I'm playing and, and they may be wearing that,

08:39that button or that t-shirt. And, uh, you know, I'm just there to honor their loved one, their father,

08:46their, their mother, whoever it was that was lost and to, to show them that we love them.

08:54There's, you know, there's always what we call the flag garden. And so each one of the families

09:00will, uh, that are attending our event will have a flag in the garden, an American flag with the name of

09:07their fallen hero on it. And, you know, we will have over 600 flags because there's over 600 families

09:14that attend this, this event each year. We do a lot of different things at the Gary Sinise Foundation

09:19focused on gold star families, our wounded World War II veterans, entertainment on military bases and

09:27hospitals. We do a lot of different things at the Gary Sinise Foundation. And we do that because prior to

09:33the Gary Sinise Foundation, prior to creating this, I was engaged with so many different military

09:39charities who do all kinds of different things that I saw a lot of need in all these different areas.

09:46And then when I sat down to kind of structure my own military nonprofit support nonprofit,

09:54I remember one of the legal folks said, well, what's going to be your mission? What's,

09:59what's your one thing that you do? And I say, well, we're going to do a lot of things because that's,

10:06I just know where the needs are. We build houses for our wounded. We do all kinds of things at the

10:11Gary Sinise Foundation. We do that because that's where I came from. I came from a lot of different

10:16areas. Like you said, there are a lot of needs. Have you seen any needs come up recently that, uh, for

10:22veterans, have you seen anything come up that you want to start focusing on for the next year?

10:27You know, we're always looking at where we can apply our particular resources to

10:35making the biggest difference. And unfortunately, as I, as I mentioned, there's a big,

10:43there's a very serious mental health problem within the services. So, uh,

10:49you will have a lot of people taking their own lives that just find no way out. And that is a very,

10:58very serious problem. I don't know that we, uh, we're the ones that can solve that problem. It's very,

11:06very serious. But we want to participate in trying to be part of the solution in the future.

11:12Uh, last question to you, Gary, and I'll let you go to your Christmas party.

11:17Um, I really wanted to know, you have a book coming out next year.

11:21I was wondering if you could give us a juicy tidbit from your book, just a little teaser.

11:27The book is, the book's called, uh, Grateful American. And I, I'm very grateful for so many

11:35different things that have happened in my life. I'm grateful to live in this country and grateful

11:40for the opportunities that have been afforded to me because I live here. But the second part of that,

11:46the subtitle, uh, title is called a journey from self to service. And it really is a look back.

11:53It's a memoir and it's a look back and how I got to this place where I'm spending all my time, uh,

11:59serving others and, and trying to provide services, uh, through, through my foundation here and,

12:08and kind of use, uh, you know, the blessings of, of, of what I've been given in this life to, to

12:15kind of serve others and the, and the, and the, and the, and the rewards you get from that, you know?

12:25Uh, really, truly, uh, adding purpose to one's life, you know, beyond just putting food on the table

12:34and taking care of the family, which are absolutely, you know, imperative and critically important, uh,

12:41to me as a family man and a father and husband and everything. But then beyond that, to be able to have

12:48kind of stumbled along the way and found myself in this place, it's, uh, it's really an interesting,

12:58sometimes really hilarious, uh, look at, you know, how I ended up where I am. Um, and it goes back,

13:06it goes back to key moments in my life that have, you know, kind of added up to, to, to where we are

13:13today. And there's some that are not so pretty and, and, um, some that are, um, moving, I think,

13:22emotional. They sure were for me to write them. And then you meet a lot of different people along the

13:28way that have affected me and, and, uh, played a significant role in, in, in, in my life and how

13:36it's evolved. Wonderful. Well, we're looking forward to that. It's coming out in February. Gary Sinise,

13:42thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Gary Sinise Talks His Foundation’s Snowball Express Bringing Gold Star Families to Disney World | In Studio

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