Dave Ruffin

Mentor: Youth programs (2018-19)
B.A. (Drama) B.M. (Music) Northwestern University (’03)
MDiv (Master of Divinity) Harvard Divinity School (’13)
Wildnerness First Responder, Basic Life Support Provider

If you could drop into Dave’s “adult” life over space and time at random, you might find him campaigning for political change, singing and dancing on top of his hot rod, “Greased Lighting,“ in Broadway musical-land, or trying to inspire and encourage the communities he served as a Unitarian Universalist minister… (in other words, he’s got a pretty killer hand for “two truths and a lie”).

Throughout it all, Dave has returned again and again to nature. For renewal and solace and adventure, in wonder and fascination and gratitude, nature has been his invaluable home base.

So nature is where Dave naturally returned when he realized the vocation he thought he’d arrived at as a UU minister was not the life calling he’d envisioned. Since early last year (2017) Dave has been on a new wilderness adventure, embracing the wild, inside and out, more fully and freely. He came to Vermont to explore organic farming, sustainability and homesteading life, and also spend as much time in the woods and mountains as he can – such as hiking the Long Trail (!) – and he hasn’t looked back. While exploring these new frontiers, he also felt a new nudge toward helping the next generations grow in their own relationship to the magical “more-than-human” world. He believes there may be no greater power for the renewal we and the planet need than a deeper relationship with nature, and he wants to share that.

Following that leading brought Dave to Crow’s Path. He is so grateful for this opportunity to join the Crows Path team and learn and play and grow alongside these amazing young human animals we’re privileged to mentor.

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