NASHVILLE (AP) — Richard Casper shakes his head as he touches one of the boarded-up windows of the once-abandoned church he plans to turn into a new 24-hour arts center for veterans.
The U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Purple Heart recipient said he was within arm’s length of military personnel, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, at the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington when he learned the former church was their church. Non-profit CreatiVets The one I had just purchased had been destroyed.
Casper was saddened by the physical damage to the building and its stained glass windows. But what worried him more was that the church had remained vacant since 2017 without any damage. This vandalism occurred just weeks after CreatiVets purchased it, suggesting that perhaps he and the veterans in his program were not welcome.
“We were almost leaving,” Casper said. “It gave me a weird headache.”
But Casper, 40, winner of CNN Heroes, Elevate Award Winnerneeded more support for the center, which is “the place you go when you have PTSD.” Like many veterans, he said his PTSD from watching his best friend die while on patrol in Iraq usually happens in the middle of the night when the only open places are bars or other “disruptive” spaces.
He thought a 24-hour center where veterans could engage in music, painting, sculpture, theater and other arts would be helpful. It could “turn all pain into something beautiful.” This artistic element was incorporated after Casper, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Iraq, found it difficult to appear in public except when listening to live music.
So he went on a mission that night to introduce CreatiVets to new people in Washington. Casper then returned to Nashville and practiced what he had preached to hundreds of veterans since founding the nonprofit in 2013. he asked for help.
And then help came.
Within weeks, CreatiVets art director Tim Brown taught a roomful of volunteers how to create stained glass to replace the one that had been destroyed. Brown said the volunteers wanted to give back to the organization, but also “because of the impact these activities have had on them.”
Gary Sinise believes in the influence of art
Gary Sinise has influential values. The actor, musician and philanthropist had already signed on to donate $1 million through his foundation to help CreatiVets purchase the building. Mr. Sinise’s involvement prompted two other donors to help finalize the purchase.
The “CSI: New York” star said he believed in CreatiVets’ work and had seen a similar program already in place in his hometown of Chicago to help veterans sort out their wartime experiences.
“In the military, you’re trained to do serious work to protect your country, right?” Sinis said. “Being in the infantry means you’re trained to kill people. You’re trained to suppress any emotions and be strong.”
These skills are important when fighting the enemy, but they also come at a high cost, especially when veterans are not taught how to discuss their feelings after the war ends.
“Veterans often don’t seek help,” Sinise said. “But acting out what they’re going through through art and even in theater can be very beneficial.”
David Booth says he is living proof of how CreatiVets can help. And the retired sergeant, who served 20 years in the U.S. Army as a medic and counterintelligence officer, said he wished he had joined the program sooner.
“For me, this was more important than any counseling I’ve had in the past year and a half,” Booth said. “It was very therapeutic.”
After years of invitations, Booth, 53, finally joined CreatiVets’ songwriting program in September. He traveled from his home in The Villages, Florida, to Nashville’s historic Grand Ole Opry to meet with two successful songwriters, Brian White, who co-wrote Jason Aldean’s “Blame It on You,” and Craig Campbell, of “Outskirt of Heaven” fame, to help him write songs about his life.
Booth spoke about his service, including being injured in Iraq in 2006 when the vehicle he was traveling in hit an improvised explosive device and detonated.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the explosion and required months of rehabilitation before he could walk again. His entire cervical vertebrae are fused. He still receives an epidural to relieve nerve pain. And he still suffers from nightmares and PTSD.
In Iraq, Booth’s unit was once surrounded by children, as American soldiers gave them Jolly Rancher candy. Snipers shot the children in the hopes that they would become easy targets when the soldiers tried to help them.
“I can’t get things like that out of my head,” Booth said. “How do I get them out?”
He also spoke about his desire to spread a positive message and the veteran support nonprofit he founded, Combat Veterans to Careers. Those experiences became the song “What’s Next.”
Booth hopes “What’s Next” will be available on music streaming services so others can hear his story. Since 2020, CreatiVets has been working with Taylor Swift’s first record label, Big Machine Label Group, to release a compilation of veterans’ songs. This year’s collection was released on Friday.
After hearing the finished version, Booth said, “It was as if they had sensed what I was feeling and put it into the lyrics.” “It was so surreal and so amazing.”
Why Lt. Dan from “Forrest Gump” started a nonprofit organization
Throughout his career, Sinise has seen art have unexpected impacts. His connection to veterans deepened when he received an Oscar nomination for his role as wounded Vietnam veteran Lt. Dan Taylor in 1994’s Forrest Gump. His music with the Lt. Dan Band expanded on that. In 2011, he launched the Gary Sinise Foundation, which broadly serves veterans, first responders, and their families.
“I think the people have a responsibility to take care of their defense,” he said. “We all have an opportunity to do that, and one way to do that is through multiple nonprofits.”
Sinise immediately identified with CreatiVets’ mission. When the idea came to dedicate the new center’s performance space to his late son, Mac, who passed away last year after a long battle with cancer, Sinise thought it was “the perfect synergy.”
“Mac was a great artist,” he said. “And he was a humble, quiet, creative force. If Mac had survived and not gone through what he went through, he would have been one of the young leaders here at the foundation. He would be composing music and helping veterans.”
Mac Sinise continues to support veterans, with proceeds from his album Resurrection & Revival and its posthumous sequel going to the Gary Sinise Foundation. And Gary Sinise said he has discovered more songs from his son and plans to record them for his third album later this year.
After the new center was destroyed, Casper said he was heartbroken but encouraged by the knowledge that part of the center was destined to become Mack Sinise Auditorium. He decided to take the pieces of a broken stained glass window and turn them into new artwork inspired by the music of Mac Sinise.
“I said I’m going to try harder to make sure people know that Mac was alive. He wasn’t dead, he was alive,” Casper said as he handed Sinise a stained glass window inspired by Mac Sinise’s songs “Arctic Circles” and “Penguin Dance.”
“Oh my god, it’s so beautiful,” Sinise said as she fought back tears.
Examining the piece more closely, Sinise added: “It’s an honor to have this place over there and for Mac to support Richard and help veterans.”
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