Helping Iraqi children.(Gary Sinise and Laura Hillenbrand)

Regular viewers of the weekly crime drama CSI: NY are familiar with actor Gary Sinise, who is also well-known for the role he played as Lt. Dan Taylor in the film Forrest Gump. Sinise is less well-known for his role in co-founding--along with author Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend--a grass-roots organization called Operation Iraqi Children (OIC). Sinise describes Operation Iraqi Children as "a grass roots program to provide concerned Americans with a means to reach out to Iraqi kids and help support our soldiers' efforts to assist the Iraqi people."

According to Sinise and Hillenbrand, their work began when U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq observed the plight of children who could not receive an adequate education owing to the serious lack of educational materials and school supplies in that unfortunate land.

Moved by compassion, many American soldiers took it upon themselves to help on their days off. They collected school supplies sent to them by family members, friends, and charitable groups back in the states, and then took the materials to village schools. Sometimes they even had to rebuild the schools, which were suffering from the effects of neglect and war.

Observing that a private effort was needed to pick up and continue what was clearly beyond the military's purview, Sinise and Hillenbrand founded OIC. Through OIC's School Supply Kit Program, American children, church groups, and other organizations help Iraqi children by gathering school supplies in local drives and then assembling them in kits according to OIC's instructions. The various groups then send ...