Today’s guest blogger is John Vardiman, 2012 graduate of the North Lake College (NLC) Blazer Academy of Supervisory Leadership. NLC chooses 12 employees each year to participate in the leadership training. Participants are required to make presentations, which is frightening to many people. But, Sergeant Vardiman overcame his fear and won the award for this year’s class. His presentation is seen is this video, and he shares his notes for the presentation below.
“Good afternoon, I’m John Vardiman, a sergeant with the North Lake College Police Department. My presentation today is on one of my favorite hobbies: Visiting the sites of our U.S. Presidents, from birth to death. This hobby started, quite by accident, about 25 years ago when I was in my home town of Indianapolis, Indiana. While visiting the grave sites of some of my relatives, at Crown Hill Cemetery, I saw a directional sign, for the “umpteenth” time I might add, pointing the way to the burial sight of Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd U.S. President. So, having a little time to just sight see, I decided to go to the site and take a photo, and I did. After leaving the cemetery, and still having some time on my hands driving around reminiscing about my childhood, it dawned on me that I remembered the former resident of the President and decided to visit the residence, which I did, and again took some photos. The next year driving through Indiana en route to my birthplace in Evansville, Indiana, I stopped overnight in Vincennes, Indiana. While in the lobby looking over some brochures, I came across this brochure regarding the former residence of William Henry Harrison, our 9th president, and grandfather of Benjamin Harrison. I thought this was a great opportunity to visit and take photos of that residence. I visited and took photos of the residence, the property, and the grave sites, AND THE JOURNEY BEGAN.”
