Actor Gary Sinise will be awarded the 2016 Bradley Prize for his work helping military veterans, first responders and their families.
The 61-year-old Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders and Forrest Gump star will be presented with the award at a special ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on June 15. The Bradley Prize carries a stipend of $250,000, which Sinise will donate to his Gary Sinise Foundation.
The Oscar-nominated actor founded the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2011 and has since launched numerous programs aimed at supporting veterans and first responders. The foundation includes programs like R.I.S.E., which provides homes, mobility devices and specially adapted vehicles to wounded service members, and Serving Heroes, which serves hearty American meals to veterans at major travel hubs.
Sinise has also taken his Lt. Dan Band overseas to boost morale on American military bases across the world and founded the Invincible Spirit Festivals, day-long events with live music and food in celebration of service members’ achievements, at military hospitals throughout the country.
“We recognize Gary Sinise for his philanthropy and civic engagement,” Bradley Foundation President and CEO Michael Grebe said in a statement. “He has shown unwavering dedication to those who have selflessly served our country and our way of life.”
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation was founded in 1985 and dedicated to the promotion of limited, competent government, a dynamic free marketplace and the vigorous defense of American ideas and institutions.
Other recipients of the 2016 Bradley Prizes include political scientist Charles Murray, British historian Andrew Roberts and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
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