Gary Sinise Foundation Smart Home Build for Capt. Jason Church

Gary Sinise Foundation & Audio Video Specialists

Audio Video Specialists has been at the forefront of creating automated smart homes, playing a pivotal role in revolutionizing the way individuals interact with their living spaces. Our expertise in integrating cutting-edge technology with personalized needs has allowed us to contribute to impactful projects, such as the one undertaken by the Gary Sinise Foundation. Recently, in a small community west of Milwaukee, the foundation’s custom homebuilding initiative culminated in the unveiling of a specially adapted smart home for Capt. Jason Church, a severely wounded U.S. Army veteran. This inspiring event not only showcased the foundation’s dedication to providing tailored homes for wounded veterans but also underscored the vital role of companies like Audio Video Specialists in creating environments that promote accessibility, comfort, and independence.

For over 40 years, Gary Sinise, best known for playing Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump, has been a tireless advocate for our nation’s defenders. In 2011, he established the Gary Sinise Foundation to expand on his personal efforts to honor and uplift the men and women who serve. In July of 2023 this small community in southern Wisconsin put this generosity on full display.

Escorted by a squadron of bearded veterans on Harleys, Capt. Jason Church—himself a veteran of the U.S. Army—and his wife, Bella, arrived at their new home last week to find more than 200 friends, family, and members of the community welcoming them to the neighborhood and a house decorated with American flags.

The Churches’ new home comes courtesy of the Gary Sinise Foundation, a nonprofit that offers a wide variety of programs and services for veterans, first responders, and families of fallen heroes. To date, 103 heroes and their families have benefited from the foundation’s custom homebuilding initiative, which builds and finances mortgage-free smart homes specially adapted to the needs of wounded defenders.

This new house has no steps or basement, and its ranch style can easily accommodate a wheelchair. Although Capt. Church often walks with two prosthetic limbs, he uses a wheelchair at home to rest his legs. In the new house he can wheel right to the kitchen sink and slide his chair underneath. “Now you have no excuse not to do the dishes,” Bella teased.

In 2012 Capt. Church was serving in Afghanistan when he realized his unit had walked into an improvised explosive device field. The ear-shattering explosion that followed cost Capt. Church both of his legs and almost his life. Immediate medical attention in the field and 20 surgeries in Afghanistan and the U.S. brought Capt. Church where he is today.

Through his rehabilitation, Capt. Church graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and he later earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He and Bella applied for and were granted a home from the foundation.