Press Release from the Gary Sinise Foundation

The Gary Sinise  Foundation will be  holding a dedication of a specially  adapted smart home built for  U.S. Army Sargent First Class Jared Bullock, (Retired) from Carbondale.

The dedication will take place on Thursday, June 29th at  10:00 a.m. on the site where  his home constructed at 1407 Hickory Trail Road in Carbondale.  The ceremony will last around 90 minutes.

United States Army Sergeant First Class Jared Bullock (Ret.) was profoundly impacted by the attacks on September 11, 2001. Two years later, he and his twin brother enlisted in the Army together. After serving two tours in Iraq, Bullock began training for Special Forces. He received a Green Beret and on October 13, 2013, Bullock was deployed to Afghanistan.

Exactly one month later, while on a routine patrol, Bullock’s ATV ran over an improvised explosive device (IED). Though he survived, he was severely injured, losing his right arm above the elbow and his right leg above the knee. Once Bullock was stable, he was flown to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX where he underwent 30 surgeries. The Gary Sinise Foundation is proud to build Bullock, his wife Jesica, and their son Aidan a specially adapted smart home through its R.I.S.E. program.
Gary Sinise Foundation’s R.I.S.E. program (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment), along with our donors, including The Marcus Foundation, Inc., The Home Depot Foundation, Semper Fi Fund and Larry & Phyllis Castrale as well as our building partners, Shubert Design Furniture, CORE Brands, National Wood Flooring Association, National Tile Contractors Association, Sunbelt Rentals, National Association of Home  Builders, Benjamin Moore, North American Van Lines, GE, Broan-NuTone, MAPEI, Kohler, Crossville Tile, MIA+BSI The Natural Stone Institute, James Hardie, American Airlines, and T. Scott Williams Builders will join the Carbondale, Illinois community in this home dedication ceremony for U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jared Bullock and his family.

The simple tasks of everyday life — climbing stairs, reaching a high shelf, getting in and out of the bathroom — are easy to take for granted. Because they’re done without a second thought, it’s impossible to imagine an inability to perform them. But that’s often the reality for our severely wounded heroes, where basic tasks are impossible obstacles and the enduring ambition of rehabilitation is to achieve a semblance of normalcy. Under its R.I.S.E. program, the Gary Sinise Foundation is building specially adapted smart homes for our nation’s most severely wounded veterans.  We are constructing these one-of-a-kind homes all across the country, each for a wounded hero, their caregivers, and families. With a place to truly call home, they will now be able to move forward with their lives.

The Gary Sinise Foundation honors America’s defenders, veterans, first responders, their families and those in need. Through its R.I.S.E. program (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment), specially adapted smart homes are being constructed for severely wounded veterans nationwide. Each one-of-a-kind home is customized to ease the everyday burdens of a wounded hero, their family, and caregivers. Other programs include Relief & Resiliency Outreach, Invincible Spirit Festivals, Gary Sinise & the Lt. Dan Band, Arts & Entertainment Outreach, Serving Heroes, and First Responders Outreach. Its latest program, Soaring Valor, is sending WWII veterans to The National WWII Museum and documenting their first-hand accounts of the war. For more information, please visit GarySiniseFoundation.org