Seeds of Healing: A Growing Partnership at The Free School
- Brooke Orr
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 16
When I first met Kelly McMullen, I quickly realized the Delmarva Free School wasn’t just a place—it was part of her. Since 2016, she’s been nurturing this small sanctuary in Pittsville, where land, learning, and healing come together in a way that’s hard to describe unless you’ve been there yourself.
Kelly founded the Free School after ten years as a licensed mental health provider. Her decision to leave the clinical world and start something new came from her own path toward healing—a journey shaped by lived experience, training in holistic practices, and a deep belief in the power of nature to help people reconnect with themselves.
Over the past year, Lower Shore Land Trust has had the honor of supporting that mission. With funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, we’ve been working alongside Kelly to bring her vision for the land to life.
As she shared:
"With the stewardship of the Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, and funds provided by the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Lower Shore Land Trust is helping us reach our goal of community greening for good mental health."
This collaboration has taken shape through some beautiful projects:
A 1.4-acre native pollinator meadow, now seeded and starting to bloom, is designed not just for pollinators—but as a space where people can walk, breathe, and feel held by the land. Kelly will also be using clippings from the meadow for an offering at the upcoming Juneteenth celebration hosted by Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake & Partners at Pemberton Park on June 20th.
In the center of the meadow, a future food forest will grow, filled with healing herbs and nourishing fruits that Kelly and her community will use in their daily lives and ceremonies.
New native gardens were installed to help manage runoff and support local biodiversity, planted with species like carex and other water-loving plants.
A rain barrel now captures stormwater to help sustain the gardens and future forest—especially important in this flood-prone area on the edge of what was once a great bald cypress swamp.
And through Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake’s Trees for Sacred Spaces program, 17 native trees were planted to support habitat and spiritual connection.
At the heart of the Free School’s gathering space is a fire circle and tent beneath trees that are over 150 years old. It’s here that people come together for what Kelly calls “sacred quiet time”—a place where healing happens not through talking, but through simply being.
I’ve had the privilege of spending time in this space—planting trees, walking through the meadow, hearing stories from community members, and even painting with Kelly’s daughter. Every visit feels like a small reminder that land care and community care aren’t separate. They feed each other.
Kelly’s vision is one that asks not just, What do we want this space to look like? but rather, How should this land be treated? And that shift—from aesthetics to relationship—is where something really special happens.
This isn’t just a garden project. It’s a living, growing sanctuary rooted in healing—of people, of place, and of what’s possible when we work in partnership with the land.
