Dave Redding
ECOVILLAGE
Dave is one of the two original purchasers of the EcoVillage Charlottesville property. The property was purchased as a result of input by Douglas Olson and his concept of building community on his 6.35acre property he and his wife owned. Purchased in the fall of 2103 Dave has lived on the property since early 2014, committed to building a resilient community. Dave's days are spent in repairing and maintaining the beautiful historic Lochlyn House, the 3700 sqft home, as well as the Healthy living Center, a duplex building located on the south side of the property. Dave worked as a project manager for Motorola before taking early retirement in 1997, so he could take over that part of the EcoVillage project. Dave is also the executive director of the Healthy Food Coalition, a 251(c)3 IRS approved non-profit which Joanie and he began about 9 years ago when they saw that there is a large need for us all to eat healthy foods to remain healthy.
BACKGROUND
Dave retired early from Motorola, and for 13 years traveled the world volunteering - attempting to make the world a better place than he found it. The skill sets he brought with him from working include project manager, electrical contractor, heating and air contractor, real estate broker and general contractor. He was raised on a 'truck farm' where he grew vegetables for the local grocery stores, so he knows a bit about gardening for markets. While traveling, Dave volunteered at each place for a long enough time (2-4 months) to understand the local communities. He was surprised that most places no longer have any community spirit. He sees this as our greatest need. Without a sense of community, we feel powerless in the larger world. Gardening allows us to provide for ourselves and our community. In the Fall of 2010 he settled down in Charlottesville, Va and enjoys working with the local non-profits very much. Dave spends his free time volunteering with a verity of organizations including Virginia Organizing, Community Bikes, Computer 4 Kids, Food not Bombs, Grandmas got Email, Cville TimeBank, Urban Ag Collective of Charlottesville, and 325Central Va.
ecovillagecville@gmail.com