When Nolan Erickson, an 18-year-old senior at the Marysville Arts and Technology High School, had to come up with a senior project, he knew it had to be big.

"I had to do something that impacted the community, so I chose to help the homeless by going down to Seattle and handing out food, clothes, and interacting with them," said Nolan.

Not only did Nolan, his youth pastor and eight other volunteers help the homeless, they did it in a huge way that Nolan had dreamed of from the beginning.

In December 2008, with help from friends and members of four churches, they were able to raise exactly "586 articles of clothing, $319 that was put towards buying warm clothing purchased on black Friday, and made 127 sandwiches," said Nolan.

The group then took the supplies to Pioneer Square, Pike Street, and to the Homeless University Congregational in Seattle, areas which Nolan thought had the highest concentration of homeless people. When the volunteers were handing out the provisions, they also wanted to talk with the homeless and stimulate interaction between them.

Nolan said, "Homeless people have some of the coolest stories I've ever heard because they have a lot of life experiences."

This wasn't Nolan's first time of helping others in need.

In 2003, after the devastating tsunami hit the Asian Pacific countries, Nolan, then a sophomore, knew he had to help the victims. He and a friend decided to coordinate a penny drive for students and faculty to donate their coins to help with relief efforts.

"I felt like the school needed to do something, and this was one way to get people involved," said Nolan, who ended up raising over a thousand dollars.

Nolan admits that it wasn't until tenth grade that he started becoming social and interested in activities other than schoolwork.

"I don't like big schools. At first, I wasn't very social, and I wanted to be at a small school. I was on medicine that made me focus, and I focused on my schoolwork and nothing else. That all changed in tenth grade." After Nolan stopped taking his medicine, he became more social and realized that he loved people and loved to help them.

Nolan is going to continue his efforts to help others by volunteering at a rescue mission in San Francisco after he graduates this June. He plans to be there for three months and then travel to Uganda for another three months. His ultimate life goal is to be a youth pastor, and he will plans to attend the Benny Perez Internship program in Las Vegas that prepares young adults to become pastors.

Nolan and his supporters have been going back to Seattle twice a month to help support the homeless and are planning another trip on Tuesday, February 24. If you would like to help Nolan and his friends with their community outreach efforts, you can contact Marysville First Assembly of God at (360) 659-2276 for further details.