Gary Sinise to Open Rooster Walk

On Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m., award-winning actor and humanitarian Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will have the distinction of opening the popular Rooster Walk Music Festival in Martinsville. Since its inception a few years ago, the festival has become the place to be just prior to-and during-Memorial Day weekend.

The concert, originally scheduled for March 31, was postponed due to injuries Sinise sustained while a passenger in a car that was involved in an accident.

All of the money raised from the May 24th performance will go to the building of a "smart home" for Marine Cpl. JB Kerns. Kerns is a local hero who lost both legs and his right arm following an IED explosion while on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan.

During a press conference at the Martinsville Speedway in February, The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation (named after a NY firefighter who perished on 9/11), and the Gary Sinise Foundation, announced that they had joined together, as part of their Building For America's Bravest program, to build a "smart home" for Kerns to allow him to live as independently as possible. Land for his house on the Ararat River has already been purchased.

"JB Kerns has given so much in service to his country, it is a privilege to do what I can to give something back to him," said Gary Sinise. "I hope the entire community will join me and my band to help show our support and gratitude to a great American hero. And the timing of our concert could not be more fitting-right before Memorial Day. As our 30th president Calvin Coolidge said, ‘The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.' Let's come together to honor this brave American, and show him that we will not forget what he has sacrificed in defense of our freedom."

"It's a pleasure to work with these two great foundations," said Johnny Buck, a co-founder of Penn-Shank Memorial LLC, which operates the Rooster Walk. "Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band will be a fantastic kick-off to Rooster Walk and a real treat for our VIP ticket holders". As a bonus, if someone purchases a VIP ticket to the Rooster Walk Festival, they will get to see the Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan concert at no additional cost and festival organizers have pledged to donate $15 per VIP ticket towards building JB's home.

To buy General Admission tickets to just the Gary Sinise Lt. Dan Band Concert:
Call: Piedmont Arts Association, (276) 632-3221
Go online: www.piedmontarts.org

To buy VIP tickets to the Rooster Walk festival:
Go online: www.roosterwalk.com

Of note: Only those with Lt. Dan Band tickets or Rooster Walk VIP tickets will be admitted to the concert. Festival VIP ticket holders will be treated to a free dinner and allowed to set up their camp sites and spend the night at Blue Mountain. For every Rooster Walk VIP Ticket sold, festival organizers will donate $15 to The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, to build JB Kerns' home.

About Building For America's Bravest:
Since 2011, the two foundations have joined forces to build smart homes for three quadruple amputees. In 2012 they are partnering on nine additional homes for very-severely wounded warriors from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They completed one home for Spc. Brendan Marrocco on June 11, 2011 in Staten Island, NY; broke ground October 26, 2011 at the Lake of the Ozarks, MO for Cpl. Todd Nicely‘s smart home; broke ground on Feb. 14 in Temecula, CA for Cpl. Juan Dominguez‘s home; and this year will begin raising funds for a home in Ararat, VA for JB Kearns, in Brooklyn, NY for Spc. Dilberian, and others in Albany, NY, Columbia, MO, Atlanta, GA, Marietta, OH, and Whitehall, PA.

To make donations to Building For America's Bravest Program, go to: http://www.garysinisefoundation.org/help_us/donate or https://tunneltotowersfoundation.org/donate_now.aspx .

About the Gary Sinise Foundation:
The Gary Sinise Foundation is dedicated to serving the Nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families and those in need by creating and supporting unique programs designed to entertain, educate, inspire, strengthen and build communities. For more information, go to www.GarySiniseFoundation.org.

About The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation:
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, named after fallen NY firefighter Stephen Siller, is best known for its annual Tunnel to Towers Run which follows Siller's heroic run from a blocked-off Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the World Trade Center in a desperate bid to save lives. The Run, held the last Sunday of each September, attracts 30,000 participants from around the world. Beginning in 2011, cities all across America-including some of the largest-held their versions of the Tunnel to Towers Run and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Foundation's "Building for America's Bravest" program. For more information, go to www.TunneltoTowers.org.