An English professor by trade, for Kat Hayes, volunteering with the History Team at Tyler Arboretum is the perfect complement to that work. Though writing is her true love (she has an M.F.A. from Rosemont College and teaches at Eastern University), she considers herself “kind of like a history groupie” and has always been fascinated by the history of Tyler. When she walks the grounds, she can feel the stories of the people who made Tyler what it is. Volunteering with the History Team has been a great place for her to get lost in the lives of these people and to write about their lives and to help preserve their history.
Beginning in 2010, before her time volunteering with the History Team, Kat taught summer camp here at Tyler for about six years. She then had her own kids (two girls who are now 6 and 10) and was busy with her professorship. Over the years, she volunteered at various Tyler events, including the moth marshmallow night event, Tyler at Twilight and various other festivities. Recently, she had been looking for other ways to give back to Tyler and to put her writing expertise to use, and landed with the History Team.
As a History Team volunteer, Kat Hayes enjoys being one of 'the keepers of the story.'
She describes the History Team as “the keepers of the story.” They are the folks who have a deeper memory of Tyler, a deeper sense of time and a deeper understanding that what currently exists at Tyler is part of a greater legacy. Whether it is preserving photography, documents, ephemerals or artifacts, the History Team is always figuring out ways to tell and preserve the story of Tyler’s past. This summer, Kat has been spending her time visiting the archives in the Swarthmore College library, examining the poetry of Jacob Minshall. She has one article publishing soon about him, and intends to write more articles, perhaps about Rachel and Hannah Painter, before the year ends.
Throughout the years that Kat has been coming to Tyler, she has always marveled at the collaboration among the different volunteer units here. It is one of the things that makes Tyler such a special place, she says, to have different groups working together towards a common purpose. It also never gets old to see visitors lighting up when they enter the gates of Tyler and experiencing all it has to offer. Kat strives to contribute to the Tyler experience by sharing historical stories through writing. With her deeper dive into the archives of Tyler’s history, she feels like she has gone down a rabbit hole – and she might never come back.
