Volunteer Educator Martin Kelly leads a group of children visiting Tyler Arboretum on a school field trip in Spring 2024.
As a grandfather of six grandchildren and an avid practitioner of meditation, volunteering as an educator for Tyler Arboretum’s school field trip program was the perfect landing spot for Martin Kelly after retirement.
One might wonder how running around with 14 elementary school kids for two hours might correlate with meditation practices, but for Martin, allowing children to enjoy nature is the ultimate meditative experience. Leading children through the arboretum allows him to be present in the moment, helping children who might not have a lot of opportunities to be in nature to connect with the outdoors, to become a part of nature.
“The lower bar is helping them connect. The higher bar is getting them to feel integrated with nature. Breathing with the trees. So if you can help most of the kids connect, they will feel a stewardship or responsibility for nature because they are part of it,” he says.
Volunteer Educator Martin Kelly is a grandfather of six.
Feeling A Part of Nature
Martin has always loved being outdoors and, having grown up in Delaware County, remembers Tyler Arboretum as a meaningful place for him as a young child. His father liked to hike and camp, and Martin has always felt that being outdoors in nature, particularly in the mountains, gives him a quiet place that generates a real sense of stillness and peace. Having climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2011, he had a feeling of being a part of nature, rather than being separated from it. And that is what he looks to convey to the children on the field trips.
His prior work experience has also contributed to his mindset. Enduring stress as a businessman in the 1980s, he turned to meditation. He took a course at the Center for Mindfulness in Massachusetts in 1991, and meditation has been an integral part of his daily life ever since. In more recent years, Martin worked for a consulting company doing risk management for schools around the country. By conducting on-site safety assessments and offering suggestions for improvement, he felt he could leave the students and faculty in a safer place.
Sharing a Love for the Outdoors in Retirement
Now retired, Martin spends as much time as he can with his adorable grandchildren, as well as painting, woodworking, and continuing his meditation practices. He lives in Media with his wife and two black labrador retrievers.
In retirement, Martin volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware and is looking to build pollinator gardens for the kids, who do not have much opportunity to be in nature.
Martin’s love for the outdoors and his focus on meditation also led him back to Tyler Arboretum. When he learned about the new school field trip program in Spring of 2024 and that Tyler was looking for volunteer educators, he immediately knew that was the perfect opportunity for him. Since the program’s inception, he has been a volunteer educator on the weekly field trips that run through the Spring and Fall of the school year.
Martin Kelly, second from the right and dressed as a bee, recently volunteered to dress up in costume for Tyler's first ever Halloween Walk.
He also recently volunteered to dress up in costume for the Halloween Walk. He feels privileged to be a part of the field trip program; to teach the children but also to learn from them.
He loves that the arboretum provides an opportunity for all ages to experience nature, but particularly the kids. Since volunteering there, Martin has made an effort to learn about the flora so he can impart his knowledge to the students and has really grown to love Lucille’s Garden because the students really enjoy it there.
Some of the students have even told him during a field trip that it was the best day of their life – to Martin that means they had an impactful tour, that something resonated and grabbed them; and that maybe it will just open the door to viewing and seeing nature in a different way, caring about what happens to it.
