EPISODE 076 | From Hot Meals to Tiny Homes: Providing Purpose for Veterans in Crisis
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This episode so perfectly embodies the personality of guest Oscar La Madrid. He’s a dad, husband, Marine veteran, and founder of Angels Alive, a nonprofit near Atlanta, GA that feeds, rehabilitates, and now aims to house veterans who are struggling to integrate into society.
We start out with Oscar talking about his own intensity, which leads us into his family’s immigration story - he came to America from Lima, Peru when he was 12. He details the poverty he worked his way up from and how that has fueled his desire for success in life. In seeing his own success and relying on his intensity, he’s found away to help facilitate success for others and explains why this is so important for veterans in crisis. This leads us into talking about his non-profit, Angels Alive - how it got started, how he channels himself into it, and how it’s evolved since inception.
Angels Alive partners with businesses to achieve the rehabilitation needs their veterans have, such as hot meals, clothing for job interviews, therapeutic activities such as farming and scuba diving, and they even partner with local law enforcement to diffuse situations where combat veterans need to be understood so a situation can deescalate.
In fact, I met Oscar because he was looking for a partner to tell the story of a veteran who rode in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle challenge in August of 2020 to raise money for Angels Alive. If you follow Human Amplified on Facebook and Instagram, you probably saw some of that inspirational story about rider 954, who comes up in our conversation.
The evolution of Angels Alive is really a manifestation of Oscar’s presence and intention coupled with his life experience because through all the services Angels Alive offers to give veterans a sense of purpose - contribution, community, and connection - Oscar has married his family values, including his love for cooking with his grandmother in Peru, to his own understanding of reintegrating into society after coming home from the Marines in 1992.
Episode Highlights
Getting to know Oscar
The traumatic events Oscar’s been through
How Oscar stays humble
How Oscar’s intensity as a person came to be, including leading 27 lives in the Marines, and how that means pushing others to their potential
The implication and impact of corporate America and deployments on women
How Oscar channels his intensity into his professional life now, as a Marine who’s been back in corporate America since 1992
Oscar describes the poverty he grew up in and his opinion on the naturalization process in America
Oscar tells his family’s immigration story from Lima, Peru to America when he was 12, including a miracle that kept his family from being stuck in Miami
Why Oscar’s family decided to immigrate to America
How Oscar’s grandmother instilled a love of savoring food and how he’s passing that onto his kids
Oscar describes his fondest memory with his grandmother in Peru, which also may be when his entrepreneurial spirit was born
How Angels Alive was first started - as dontating one Thanksgiving meal to a family - based on Oscar marrying his love of cooking with his grandma to his post military drive for service
How Angels Alive evolved into serving more meals
How Angels Alive evolved into partnering with larger companies to help veterans prepare for reintegrating into society and finding jobs
Angels Alive evolved to also help veterans become certified in scuba diving for rehabilitation and other therapeutic activities, such as farming, for people who need to reengage after a crisis or needs a mental break
Angels Alive is partnering with local law enforcement to help the state of veterans who may be in crisis and the cops were called to help circumvent problems because Angels Alive understands veterans needs and it benefits everyone involved
Angels Alive helps with chemical dependencies
Why combat veterans go into crisis when trying to reenter into society
The need for a nationwide program to help veterans re-enter society
Angels Alive is now building a tiny home village to house veterans
Angels Alive started out as reactionary, but now is able to be more proactive because veterans who need help typically must trust you to let you in
Even though Oscar has been reintegrating into civilian life since 1992, he says smoothly fitting into society is a continual work in progress and why.
How businesses and the community can partner with and contribute to the tiny villages to house veterans.
About Oscar
Oscar La Madrid is a dad, husband, godfather, Marine veteran, and founder of Angels Alive, a nonprofit near Atlanta, GA that feeds, rehabilitates, and now aims to house veterans who are struggling to integrate into society. Oscar immigrated to the United States from Lima, Peru in 1972 with his family and graduated from the University of Georgia after actively serving in the Marines.
