Gary Sinise, US Military Discuss Aid To Haiti In Miami
MIAMI (CBS4) -- Gary Sinise, star of the hit CBS drama CSI: New York, is not only an actor he's a humanitarian and Tuesday he met with U.S. military officials in Miami about a recent shipment of school supply kits sent to Haiti.
Sinise is co-founder of the non-governmental organization "Operation International Children."
Monday, the foundation in partnership with the U.S. Southern Command and the People to People International, delivered 2,560 school supply kits to Haiti where they will be distributed to school children in Haiti's Artibonite Department.
Sinise paid a visit to the U.S. Southern Command's headquarters in Doral Tuesday to talk to command leaders and the media about the humanitarian delivery and the work of his foundation.
"It's very, very important we do what we can to help the military and help others and that's what our program does," said Sinise. "It's a military support program to help them help the children in these devastated and war torn areas around the world."
The U.S. military personnel who delivered the supplies are part of a task force currently in Haiti supporting an ongoing humanitarian assistance exercise called New Horizons-Haiti 2011. During the New Horizons exercise, the task force is also providing medical care and building a school, two medical clinics, a water-well and a latrine facility for communities near Gonaives.
The task force is led by the Louisiana National Guard with support from other U.S. service members and military personnel from Belize, Canada and Colombia. Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors from the task force are also providing medical and dental assistance to local citizens at no cost to patients.
New Horizons-Haiti 2011 is scheduled to run through June.
A previous New Horizons exercise was completed in Gonaives in September 2010 during which U.S. military personnel constructed and renovated local schools and treated more than 70,000 patients.
