Summary

      Another month has past, and it is now February. Not much has changed or happened since last month's entry, as not a lot happens in a small community like mine. Mr. Lundrigan and I still go door to door to collect the cans filled with change for our Church and cemetery. Most people over look this volunteer work, as it is a small activity that only involves two people (me and Mr. Lundrigan). But as small as it is it is still important to the community and it shouldn't be overlooked at all. I myself have learned lots of things over the time I have spent helping Mr. Lundrigan. I've learned how to be organized, how to plan ahead, and how to use patience efficiently. Though they may not look it, these are important skills that all good leaders of any group should have! If a leader doesn't have these skills things in their group will go haywire, and very rarely will anything be accomplished. I myself use these skills on a daily basis, for things like my  homework to snowmobile riding with my friends. As for using these skills as a leader during the volunteer work, I'll be honest, I rarely got to do seeing Mr. Lundrigan was in charge and the whole process and activity consisted of himself and I. But I do use these skills in school when I am the leader of a group for a group project in Chemistry or World Religions. And I now feel a lot more comfortable being in charge of a group and addressing plans and tasks to the other members of the group. More importantly though this volunteer activity helps my Church, which I feel proud of. Seeing my community has a current population that is less than two-hundred, it is important that those in the community who do care about the Church do as much as they can to support it, which is why Mr. Lundrigan started the Church can idea in the first place. By collecting and delivering the cans we can support the Church and keep it up and running, which insures that the Church is there for those who need it. So that is that. This is the summary of my Horizons Service Learning Activity blog, and I hope it shows how and what I have learned from collecting the Church cans with Mr. Lundrigan. Though this is the last entry for this blog(for now) I will still continue to work with Mr. Lundrigan, and will continue to support my church.

Have a good one,
Nicholas Martin

Third Entry

       January, the beginning of a new year, the worst month of winter many people will say, and earlier the month was my birthday! (license soon!). Though there will be some changes in my life as this year progresses, there are still things from last year or even years before that still follow me through life. I still have my religion, my family and friends, my love for videography and technology, and my volunteer work with Mr. Lundrigan. Though I am still part of the cemetery can collection progress, me and Mr. Lundrigan have not gone out collecting cans in awhile now. The reason for this is the fact that it takes a period of time ranging from a few weeks to a few months for the cans to fill up taking in the fact people usually fill them up by puttnig a penny or two in a day. But this helps to learn a very important leadership skill: patience. A good leader does not rush  their tasks, they take time to either wait or to think things over before making a decision or action. This ensures the best results with whatever it is they are setting out to do. In me and Mr. Lundrigans case, waiting for the cans to fill up allows us to concentrate on other things in our lives (in my case school), it gives Mr. Lundrigan the opportunity for the amount of money gathered form the cans to be calculated and recorded, and results in more money  in the cans when Mr. Lundrigan and I collect them. Patience is something that can be used everywhere in life, from a leopard in the African plains waiting for the right moment to attack its prey, to a man fly fishing waiting eagerly to catch the fish of the season. I have learned a lot from this, and have learned to become more patient in everyday things from school to editing videos for customers. Patience is something everyone in life will have to learn eventually, but everyone can improve on it. This is all for this months entry, and I am eager to find out how much there will be gathered in the next can collection. Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Till next time,
Nicholas Martin

2nd Entry

           Another month has past, and Christmas is approaching fast (Yay!) and another month of collecting cans with Mr. Lundrigan is in the progress. Though the weather is random at times, seeing it snowed early in the month and the weather is warming up approaching its end,  the job still has to be done. No matter what the weather is like you will still find me and Mr. Lundrigan driving door to door collecting the cemetery cans. If the weather is wet we dress accordingly to fit the weather conditions and plan a route to make the job quick to avoid being stuck in the weather for too long. As I mentioned last entry, Mr. Lundrigan carefully plans the houses to go to and not to go to and our route, but as I noticed lately he also plans with the conditions and statuses of several things in mind, which a good leader should do in a group for every plan or activity. Another thing that Mr. Lundrigan does is he keeps track of everything about the cans and the people who partake in the program. For instance, whenever I bring back a can to the car, he asks me to mark the name of the person who gave it to me on the can, and then he checks the name off a list on his clip board. He does this to keep status of who had there cans ready or not or if that person was home or not. Any houses that we were unable to collect a can from that day(for whatever the reason) are unchecked so we can plan another can collection on a separate day. This shows and demonstrates how organized Mr. Lundrigan is, and is also a very good skill for a leader to posses as it can come in handy for every situation. I now keep myself more organized after learning from Mr. Lundrigan, keeping track of my homework better and school activities (and recently the Christmas gifts I have purchased and those I need to get). Anyways, this is all for this months entry and the next will be sometime around mid January. Happy Holidays!

Sincerly,
Nicholas Martin

First Entry

       Hey, I'm Nicholas Martin and I'm proud to say I'm a Horizons Student. As a Horizons Student, I am required to do this blog on how volunteer activity helps develop my leadership skills. Where I live, there is not a lot of volunteer activities offered, but I was fortunate to find one. For the last two years I have been helping Mr. Patrick Lundrigan collect the cemetery cans around my community for my church. Once a month, me and Mr. Lundrigan drive around the community, from door to door, collecting the filled cemetery cans and delivering the new empty ones. I enjoy doing this, and I'm glad to volunteer for this. It's a very good feeling knowing your doing a good deed for your community, and I'm happy to support my church. The activity helps in different ways to further develop my leadership skills, and each way I have observed from Mr. Lundrigan over the last few months. For starters, it helps me to learn to plan ahead of my actions as Mr. Lundrigan does. The morning of the day me and Mr. Lundrigan are to collect and deliver the cans, Mr. Lundrigan carefully plans out our route and the houses to visit and the ones not to visit. If he didn't do this, it would be a very unorganized activity and would take us longer with all the confusion. Anyways, this is it for this entry, and I'll be sure to post my next entry sometime in December.

Have a good one,
Nicholas Martin