It takes heart to climb Mount Mount Kilimanjaro and that’s exactly what one U.S. Marine Corps veteran is bringing with him as he participates in a fundraising effort for five nonprofits beginning this week.
Warriors Heart Executive Director Michael O’Dell is set to join the Task Force Expedition “Epic Fundraising Mission to Mount Kilimanjaro” from June 27 to July 8.
“We’re going to spend two weeks in Africa together telling stories about what we do, how we can help and brainstorming ways we can bring awareness to these organizations,” he said.
Warrior’s Heart began in 2016 and offers a six-week inpatient training program for military, veterans and first responders who struggle with substance abuse and post-traumatic stress.
With ranches in Texas and Virginia, O’Dell said Warriors Heart is more like a home than a treatment facility.
“The idea is it's a homelike environment so you can totally let go, decompress and process through the things you need to process through,” explained O’Dell.
Participants in the program do what O’Dell described as the “heavy work” in the morning when they work through and process mental health and other issues. In the afternoon, they can participate in fun things like art therapy, horsemanship, wood and metal shop, a canine program or head to the gym or pool.
“There’s a lot of electives to keep our warriors engaged that are all therapeutic by design,” O’Dell said.
O’Dell, a single father who is raising his two children, has been sober himself for eight years now.
“Fitness has been a huge component in that,” he said.
O’Dell said sobriety is just the first step to changing your life. You have to be willing to challenge yourself and you have to be willing to grow, he said.
“Just because I’m sober doesn’t mean that life doesn’t throw its punches at you,” he cautioned. “Arguments happen, disagreements happen, you get into a car accident. It’s how you deal with it that matters.”
O’Dell grew up in Bandera, Texas, where Warriors Heart is located. He said he had his first drink of alcohol when he was 13.
“It changed how I felt in a good way,” he said. “It made me happy, it made me more social.”
O’Dell said he began drinking every day when he was 16 and dropped out of high school.
“I got a job just so I could afford pot and liquor,” he said. “It was kind of ridiculous. I wasn’t raised that way.”
O’Dell said feelings of inadequateness and depression led to his substance abuse.
“I don’t know why, they just came over me. Alcohol solved the problem at that young age,” he said.
O’Dell comes from a military family and when he was 18 he decided to join the Marine Corps.
“I went three months in boot camp without a drink of alcohol without a problem,” he said. “So, that means I’m fine.”
O’Dell deployed to Iraqu twice, to Fallujah in 2007 and to Ramadai in 2008-2009. It was while in Ramadi that one of O’Dell’s comrades took his life.
“When I got back from that deployment, every time I drank it got darker and darker and darker,” he said. “I couldn’t get out of that cycle.”
O’Dell left the Marine Corps in 2010, ran into trouble with the law and attempted to take his own life twice. In 2016, he landed in prison. He said having a child in 2013 did not sober him up, but prison did.
“I’m sitting in prison thinking how did I go from honorable service in the Marine Corps to sitting in prison because I’m not strong enough to stop drinking,” he said.
O’Dell said he found his faith again.
“This feeling just came over me where I just knew I was done with drinking and drugs,” he said. “I knew I could continue on this path if I continued to grow and do the right things for the right reasons.”
Returning to his hometown after being released from prison, O’Dell was at the gym when he was introduced to Warrior’s Heart CEO/Founder Josh Lannon, who gave him a job with the organization.
“We’re filled with staff that understand what you’re going through and we’re filled with warriors that understand what you’re going through,” he said.
O’Dell said he has been preparing for the climb by hiking, going to the gym, and eating healthy.
Corporate donations fully fund the expedition and its mission is to raise funds for its five nonprofit team. Made up of five teams, O’Dell is part of Team Frontline Healing Foundation, which provides financial hardship scholarships for veterans and first responders who do not have insurance or the means to fund their treatment.
The fundraising goal is $500,000. Donations will be split among the five participating nonprofits. To learn more go here.
“You can change people’s lives if you just focus and work on growing yourself and sharing what you learned,” he said.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com .
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