2010 Candidate Edd Ruskowitz

I'm Edd Ruskowitz and I approved this statement.

My first 45 years were spent as a professional couch potato. The outdoors and the wilderness were part of a world other people lived in. When I saw a mountaintop I'd think how cool it would be to build a house on it.

That all changed twelve years ago with my very first outing on a Sierra Club-sponsored conditioning hike in Peters Canyon. As innocuous as it seemed at the time, that hike was a major turning point for me that led to eleven years immersed in leading hikes and, more importantly, helping inspire new leaders through my service with the Angeles Chapter's Wilderness Travel Course. I quickly came to understand how outings directly led to a wide-eyed appreciation of the outdoors, of its grandeur and simplicity. I also saw for the first time how finite and fragile it all is. I truly believe the gateway to conservation and preservation is outings. I know, because I'm a poster child for this transformation.

A Wilderness Travel Course student in 2000, I returned in 2001 as an Assistant Instructor for the course. I served three years on the WTC Management Committee as WTC Orange County Chair, and am about to begin my third year as one of Orange County's two Group Leaders. I produced the WTC Newsletter from 2001 through 2005 and have produced WTC's brochures every year since 2001. Recently I served as Orange County's representative helping to craft a major overhaul of WTC's Policies and Procedures.

I've been a Sierra Club member since 1999 and earned my I-rating in 2004. Along with WTC, my outings experience includes day hikes and backpacks, participating with, and leading for, HPS, DPS, OCSS and SPS. However, I credit my experience with WTC -- the entity that produces far more Angeles Chapter leaders than any other -- for my insistence on helping and inspiring safety-centric leaders who will go on to make a positive impact on our outings programs. As an OMC member I'll draw upon those same principles and ideals to help further and accomplish OMC's goals.

[top of page]

This page updated 11/1/2010