When thinking about the effects of climate change, the melting ice caps of the Artic, or the extreme hurricanes on the nation’s coasts typically come to mind, not the rolling hills of Conway.

But as 21-inches of rain doused the town over the course of July, climate change got a little closer to home, with the small town racking up millions of dollars in damages in an already-tight budget year.

There is a bright spot emerging from the rain clouds, though, as the Friends of the Field Memorial Library have established the Ryan Scholarship in honor of Ryan Walsh Martel, who grew up in Conway and went to work on environmental policy on the state and national levels before he died at age 41 of brain cancer in 2022.

“It’s incredible; we were very humbled by the idea when we were approached,” said Mary Walsh Martel, Ryan’s mother. “The first thing I thought was, ‘God, Ryan would be so pleased that this was occurring and that he could have had some small impact somewhere in the world.’”

“Mentoring was big part of what Ryan did in a natural way,” added Garrick Martel, Ryan’s father. “I think this would be, honestly, a way he could continue mentoring.”

The establishment of the scholarship comes just in time for the Festival of the Hills, which has provided thousands of dollars in scholarships for Conway students over its nearly 60-year history. While officially separate from the festival, Thad Bennett, the coordinator of the scholarship and member of the Friends of the Library, said it’s a natural connection to launch the scholarship in conjunction with a festival that awarded money to Ryan Walsh Martel when he was a high schooler.

“All of our scholarships are about high school kids leaving Conway, this is about a kid who got a scholarship from the Festival of the Hills and was changing the world,” Bennett said. “Let’s find the next young person from Conway, who wants to help with solving environmental issues and provide a scholarship that points in that direction.”

Bennett said creating the scholarship made complete sense when someone told him about Ryan’s story and he contacted Ryan’s parents to get their blessing to launch the fund in his honor.

“He loved this town”

While the man the scholarship honors worked for years in Washington D.C. and Boston, the small town of approximately 1,700 people never left his heart.

Ryan Walsh Martel grew up in Conway, attending the Conway Grammar School and Frontier Regional School before heading to Deerfield Academy as a day student, where his parents said he was exposed to a whole new world of cultural backgrounds.

Even as he went to serve as an energy and climate policy advisor for U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Brian Schatz, or as the senior director of the federal policy team at Boston-based nonprofit Ceres, his dedication to his hometown was always there, especially to the Festival of the Hills, which he tried to attend every year.

“He loved this town, he would have moved back here, I think, had the jobs been here,” Mary Walsh Martel said. At one point, Garrick Martel added, Ryan even launched a Facebook page with his friends called “Conway is the Center of the Universe.”

“He was great at taking the most important parts of any kind of experience and making it work for him,” Garrick Martel said. “As parents, you try to be a role model for your child, but Ryan was a role model to me … I used to always say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be like Ryan.’”

Beyond his commitment to a greener future, Ryan’s parents said he was an avid fan of music and played guitar, a voracious reader and a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox, along with having an “incredible sense of pop culture.” He is survived by his wife of 12 years, Katherine Douglas Martel, as well as his children, Finnegan and Olivia.

For Nate Perry, who befriended Ryan Walsh Martel when they were 4 years old and then grew up through all stages of life with him, he described his longtime friend as someone who could make a connection with just about anybody.

“His curiosity, his communication, the ability to talk to anyone from anywhere about anything and immediately make a connection and put people at ease,” Perry said.

As the “spirit of Ryan” is kept alive in Conway through this scholarship, Perry said he is hopeful it can inspire kids to carry on Ryan’s passion.

“If the idea behind it can really inspire someone every year to pursue some of these environmental and climate initiatives that were so important to Ryan and inspire someone on the same path to do the important work he was doing, that’d be huge,” Perry said. “Even if it doesn’t inspire someone to take it that far, it’s going to help some kids out.”

Initial donations are rolling into the scholarship now and more than $11,000 has already been raised to support the fund for at least a few years. Bennett said they are convening a scholarship committee of friends and family who knew Ryan, which will then determine the number of scholarships given each year, along with how much money to designate per award.

The Friends of the Field Memorial Library are the sponsor of the scholarship and the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ashfield is serving as the fiscal agent.

Donations can be made online through GoFundMe at bit.ly/3LCh399. Donations by check are also accepted and should be made out to the St. John’s Episcopal Church with “Ryan” in the memo line. Checks can be mailed to The Ryan Scholarship c/o Walsh Martel, 324 South Shirkshire Road, Conway, MA 01341.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.