Month: October 2015

By: Taylor DeVary

“Not on my watch”

Actor Gary Sinise famous for his role in Forest Gump as Lieutenant Dan gave a speech over C-Span over his advocacy for U.S. military service members through his foundation.

Sinise was confident and relaxed as he took the podium. This gave the room the room respect as they knew what he was going to talk about would be important for our disabled veterans.

He went onto talking about how he went on tours to provide his time for the people in service after the event of 9/11. He even had to opportunity to witness an Angel flight one morning as he went into great detail about what he had seen. From the soldier men including himself lined up to pay their respects and offer a fairway salute to the fallen solider in the casket.

After this sight he went to talking about how he went around the country fund raising events to help raise awareness of these veterans and family members of the disabled soldiers. It was then Sinise decided to create the Gary Sinise Foundation.

Gary Sinise said, “In just four years with the generosity and support of the American people we have been able to start numerous programs to help make an important difference in the lives of our service men.”

The Gary Sinise Foundation is all about “R.I.S.E.   Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment”

Gary Sinise then continued to go on about the topic of what The Gary Sinise Foundation has done for the last four years and what they plan to do in the future by the end of the year 2015.

This includes building smart homes for those seriously disabled veterans who have come home with troubling wellnesses of everyday life. Along with these smart homes the foundation has built. The foundation has also helped build an honorary museum for soldiers who have served. That will be including galleries about those whom have received the metal of honor. By educating those about this high honor.

Gary then talked about how he encourages people to be supportive and appreciate those who serve and protect this country. He ended his speech with wanting Americans be being proud of this country’s freedom by saying, “Not on my watch.”

At the annual ESPN awards, Stuart Scott received the Jimmy V Foundation Award.  Stuart was given the award by one of his favorite character from his favorite TV show ’24’.  Stuart has been battling cancer for a great amount of time now.

Stuart stood up on stage with confidence as he accepted the award only a few days after from being released from the hospital.  He had four surgeries in the past seven days while in the hospital.  As Stuart said, “I’m not loosing, I’m still fighting, fighting like hell.”  It was remembering a quote that was said 21 years ago that encouraged him to “never give up”.

As Stuart went up on stage he started to tear up at the thought of winning this award and having so many people care about him, because as he said, “This is not a solo adventure, it’s all about support.”  Yet, what really blew everyone’s mind was the fact that being a father to his daughters is the best thing that could have ever happened to him.  Because of their heart beats for him with their love he stands on stage today.  He even stopped and told his daughter Sydney to come up on stage and give him a much needed hug.  He ended his speech on the note, “Have a great rest of your life.”