The Outdoor Rental Center sits on Prairie Meadow Drive, a hulking, slate-colored building. A few windows offer only a minimal view of the facility’s interior.
Inside lies a palace containing more than $200,000 worth of recreational equipment — including but not limited to canoes, snow shoes, camping stoves, and wetsuits. More than 60 sleeping bags are available, some appropriate for weather as extreme as 30 degrees below zero.
David Patton can also be found there regularly.
The 33-year-old Iowa City native works as an assistant director for UI Recreational Services. He’s overseen the Touch the Earth outdoor program — which includes the rental center — since 2005.
He previously worked in the Miami University outdoor program for three years after traveling around the country with his fiancée for nearly a year to climb, backpack, and kayak.
His experiences — ranging from mountaineering in Ecuador to climbing at the Wind River Mountain Range in Wyoming for his bachelor party — and his prior work as a student-employee during college have allowed him to help the program grow.
“There was a lot of leg work early on getting this place to be fluid, and it’s fairly fluid,” he said.
He described his typical work day with one word: “Long.”
Patton not only typically works as an administrator from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., he also supervises many of the building’s rental hours — often at night — and he leads many adventure trips, whether it’s a day trip to canoe the Maquoketa River in Iowa or a weeklong kayak trip at Everglades National Park in Florida.
But Patton’s passion for what he does is unrelenting.
Jaro John Lepic, 29, the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center climbing wall’s student staff supervisor, met Patton during a top-rope climbing lesson at the Field House in 1998.
“That’s what really makes him very solid for the position and for running the rental center and directing a lot of these trips,” Lepic said. “He’s got experience doing all of it, and he’s very passionate about doing all of it.”
Leading such trips is easily Patton’s favorite part of the job.
Daphne Patton, 34, has been married to David Patton for eight years. She said her husband is one of the few people she knows who is working in a career he studied in college — David Patton graduated from Iowa in 2000 with a degree in community and commercial recreation.
“As long as I have ever known him, that’s all he’s ever wanted to do — take people outside,” Daphne Patton said. “Take people out of their comfort zone, out of their elements, and teach them all the stuff he loves.”
David Patton finds enjoyment in trying to ignite in others the same passion for outdoor adventure that he’s had since junior high school.
“I try to use my excitement and passion for that as enthusiasm to encourage people and help them push their bounds a little bit so they can get that growth,” he said. “Because I know how much it’s benefited me.”