Gary Sinise & Laura Hillenbrand Launch Operation Iraqi Children On TODAY on 3/15

Actor Gary Sinise and Author Laura Hillenbrand Launch Operation Iraqi Children with Interview on TODAY Show, March 15

Actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) announce the launch of Operation Iraqi Children, a program that will enable Americans to send school supplies and Arabic translations of Seabiscuit to Iraqi children. Hillenbrand and Sinise will be interviewed on the Today Show, March 15.

The Need. During and after Operation Iraqi Freedom, American soldiers passing through Iraqi villages were horrified at the squalor of Iraqi schools, which had been severely neglected under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Corralled in sweltering one-room buildings without air conditioning, fans, windows, solid floors, or even toilets, Iraqi students lack even the rudimentary supplies that American children take for granted. Libraries and books are almost nonexistent. Without these basic tools of education, Iraqi children face an uphill struggle to learn. "Imagine sending your child to a school in which there are virtually no books, no pencils, no paper, no blackboards," says Hillenbrand. "This is the reality for Iraqi children. The future of the Iraqi nation is being squandered for lack of basic school supplies."

Moved by the plight of these children, many American soldiers have taken it upon themselves to help. Working in small groups on their days off, soldiers gather supplies sent by family members and church groups and take them to villages, sometimes coming under fire as they work to reconstruct the schools and deliver learning tools to Iraqi kids. Their efforts have met with immense gratitude from local Iraqis and their children, who now have access to the basic tools of education for the first time in their lives. "I have seen Iraqi kids climbing on our soldiers and hugging them and kissing them," remembers Sinise, who recently accompanied Army soldiers to a dilapidated school they were rebuilding. "I have seen their smiling faces and their attempts to say 'I love you' in broken English. The folks I saw had hope in their eyes and gratitude in their hearts for what was done for them."

Unfortunately, the need for help is so great and widespread, encompassing some 1,500 schools, that our soldiers' efforts cannot possibly answer the entire problem. The situation is critical. "The future of Iraq lies in the education of its children," says Hillenbrand. "We owe it to them, and to the hundreds of American men and women who gave their lives to bring them freedom, to give these children the basic tools of learning."

The Answer. Inspired by their conversations with Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers as well as Sinise's recent tour of the region, Sinise and Hillenbrand founded Operation Iraqi Children, 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. The operation consists of two programs:

* Through the school supplies program, American children can help their Iraqi counterparts by gathering school supplies in school-wide drives, then sending them to a military base in Iraq, where our soldiers will take them to Iraqi villages.

* Through the Seabiscuit program, operated through Thoroughbred Charities of America, Americans can make tax-deductible donations that will be used to purchase very low cost Arabic translations of the book Seabiscuit: An American Legend, to be given to Iraqi children. This program is fully non-profit, and all author royalties will be reinvested in more books for the children. Like the school supplies, Arabic copies of Seabiscuit will be delivered to Iraqi schoolchildren by U.S. military personnel.

Sinise, Hillenbrand and the organizers of Operation Iraqi Children believe that the benefits of this program will reach far beyond the recipients of supplies and books. By bringing Americans and Iraqis together and demonstrating American devotion to the welfare of the Iraqi people, the program can foster understanding between our nations and generate goodwill between Iraqis and American soldiers. "Every time a book or a box of school supplies is delivered by our troops it will be another small victory for them in helping win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis," says Sinise. "It is a beautiful way to begin a relationship with the future leaders of Iraq. They have been forgotten for so long. Now there is a chance for them."

Okay, the school supplies I get... but "Seabiscuit?" Is that really high on the Iraqi priority list?

Operation Iraqi Children: The Seabiscuit Program

The genesis. The Seabiscuit program began with an email. On the day of Saddam Hussein's capture in December, 2003, Army Lt. Col. Sherman McGrew sent Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand a note from Balad, Iraq, telling her about how he had taken a copy of her book on a mission to administer medical care to girls at a dilapidated village school. For several months, McGrew and his fellow soldiers had been bringing assistance to Iraqi schools, which they had found in shocking condition. Not far from Saddam's opulent palaces, children struggled to learn in tumbledown, windowless buildings trafficked by stray animals that defecated on the floors. The schools had no libraries, books, blackboards or even the most basic supplies.

As McGrew worked with the girls, he noticed them taking interest in his Seabiscuit book. McGrew sat them down, and through a translator, told them about the great racehorse who had rallied the hopes of America in the depths of the Depression. The story, McGrew found, had special appeal to the children, whose culture enjoyed an ancient, flourishing tradition of horse racing, and whose homeland, freed from tyranny, was just opening up to the hope and possibility that form the theme of Seabiscuit's narrative. In the girls, for whom books were exciting novelties, McGrew found a rapt audience. He told them that maybe they too could grow up to write best selling books, and idea that met with wonder among girls accustomed to a society that was severely oppressive to women. McGrew's only regret, he wrote, was that he couldn't give the book to the girls in their native Arabic.

The idea. McGrew's story, and the plight of Iraqi children, were deeply moving to Hillenbrand, who began looking into ways to get her book to the children in their native language. Through her Arabic language publisher, Nahdet Misr in Egypt, she and McGrew arranged to purchase copies for the children McGrew had met as well as kids in neighboring villages. Word of the effort spread, and soon Hillenbrand found herself deluged in emails from people from across the country who wanted to make donations to buy more books for the children. "The response was extraordinary," remembers Hillenbrand. "Once people learned of how little these children had, and how hard our soldiers were working to help them, they were very excited about joining in."

Military personnel, distressed over Iraq's lack of books, libraries and basic school supplies, were eager to expand the program and deliver the books to the children, and they arranged to airlift the books from Egypt to Iraq. Nahdet Misr offered to sell the book to donators at a large discount. Thoroughbred Charities of America, the largest charity in the horse racing industry, arranged to set up an account to take tax-deductible donations for the effort. A small idea to purchase a handful of books for girls at a single village school had blossomed into an international drive to bring the book to children across Iraq.

Because the story of Seabiscuit gives readers a glimpse of the best of American culture and democracy, Operation Iraqi Children organizers hope that it will foster a better understanding of our nation, and goodwill towards Americans, among Iraqis. Best of all, says McGrew, the rags- to-riches story could inspire impoverished Iraqi children to broaden the reach of their own aspirations. "I love to think of these children reading Seabiscuit in their very poor villages and dreaming," said McGrew. "Who knows what these small seeds planted will bear in twenty or so years?"

In February of 2004, Army Major Juliann Doris, who was coordinating the effort from Iraq, suggested that Hillenbrand speak to actor Gary Sinise, who after touring Iraq, was founding an effort to bring school supplies to Iraqi children. Sinise and Hillenbrand found that they shared a common goal, and decided to merge their two programs. Operation Iraqi Children was born.

How you can help. Even a small donation will make a huge difference. In a special arrangement for Operation Iraqi Children, Egyptian publisher Nahdet Misr is offering the book at a substantial discount: For the first 500 books the program orders, the price will be $3.70 per book; for 501 through 1000 books, the price will be $3.30; for 1001 to 3000 books, the price will be $3; and for 3001 books upwards, the price will be $2.75 per book. Each book purchased by supporters of Operation Iraqi Children will be delivered to an Iraqi child age 12 and over by U.S. military personnel. The program is fully non-profit; 100% of mailed donations, and more than 97% of online credit card donations (the credit card transaction company subtracts a 2.8% fee), go to purchase books. Hillenbrand is taking no profit from the program; all author royalties will be reinvested in more books for the children. The book is currently being translated into Arabic, and will be ready to send to Iraq soon.

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