In Frank Capra’s classic old Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring the immortal Jimmy Stewart, the main character of George Bailey is a beloved community figure who sacrifices his dream of going exploring in favor of helping the many struggling families of smalltown Bedford Falls.

He is never granted the chance to realize his childhood, lifelong dream of becoming one who experiences the world to its fullest. George never leaves Bedford Falls. But he ultimately learns how much value his life contained, due to his unselfish service to others.

A question posed by Capra’s beloved tale is whether it’s possible to touch the essence of both worlds… the pursuit and attainment of cherished personal dreams, while also demonstrating an unselfish dedication to those who most need and appreciate it.

One New London resident, Theo Maryeski, can answer a resounding “yes” to that question. Founder of the State Street, nonprofit community outreach business Bike New London and director of marine sales for the highly successful Three Belles Marina in Niantic, Maryeski can also lay legitimate claim to being dubbed a worldwide explorer.

For that is precisely what he does when not conducting online kayak sales for the marina or servicing the biking and health needs of needy local residents.

Mountain ranges, volcanoes and the natural habitat of far distant lands are best known to most of us through books, films and Internet access — and perhaps via tourism for those able to afford it — but for the intrepid Maryeski, it’s firsthand experience all the way.

“I grew up in Canada, the son of American parents,” he said. “But we vacationed in Waterford during the summers, which made me very familiar with this area. A great deal of my time was spent outdoors, and I have especially enjoyed the colder climates, having been raised in that kind of environment.”

Maryeski, whose mother is director of the Public Library of New London and whose father is a professor of philosophy at College Saint Foy in Quebec, reflects the same yearning for knowledge and understanding that is inherent in both his parents.

His affinity for the outdoors, combined with a zeal for knowledge and experience, would lead him on a lifelong quest to journey and explore the wonders of our world in ways that transcend classrooms and books. Simply put, he went there … and still does.

“I suppose much of it stems from my missing the lower climates of the colder northern regions where I was raised,” he said with an air of one who might simply close his eyes and be transported to the snowy Canadian tundra via a mere wish. Lean, rangy, and fit like a deep sea diver, Theo Maryeski talks of personal journeys that include treks to distant locales like Iceland and witnessing the enchantment of the far north’s actual glaciers.

“I’m obsessed with seeing these snow-capped wonders while they’re still here,” he said. “I’ve been to so many regions where they’re now unfortunately melting away.”

Maryeski has been there and witnessed the consequences of global warming with his own eyes.

“I’ve traveled to these locations on a number of occasions and you can see visible evidence of a serious retraction,” he said solemnly.

His yearning to return again and again to see those geographic giants and to behold them in all their icy splendor goes beyond the thrill of glimpsing nature’s picturesque beauty. For this world traveler, there is a spiritual sense of communing with our planet’s most ancient and most precious of landmarks. “I absolutely love the sensation of being both spiritually and literally high in an altitude where everything around you is so much bigger than anything you could ever imagine.”

Maryeski’s global journeys, though, are not limited to frozen tundra, snow-capped icy peaks and glacial behemoths. Volcanoes and the deeper, much warmer southern regions of the earth have also beckoned him.

The man has climbed Cotopaxi in the Ecuadorian Andes, and even Acatenango last spring, right while the neighboring volcano El Fuego was erupting. This spry middle-aged fellow who runs, bikes, hikes and also dives the oceanic depths — as well as exploring forests, deserts, valleys and canyons — will not be one to feel cheated of long sought adventures. Nor will he experience the envy of hearing others recounting such daring exploits.

Theo Maryeski, however, does not limit his adventuring to the extraordinary. When not exploring and beholding the intricacies and depths of Planet Earth’s hinterlands and highest peaks, he is busy delving into the heart of the human condition … right here in New London County.

“I came to New London 11 years ago and founded a movement to encourage people, youth especially, to utilize bicycles as a means of transportation … not just as a recreational activity,” he explained. His bike shop near the top of State Street, Bike New London, is an outpost for community advocacy. And through Mareyeski’s efforts, along with shop partner Rob Bareis — and volunteers within the community — Bike New London provides affordable bicycles that can be obtained, rented and even borrowed for locals needing a practical means of transportation. It also serves as a handy place for repairs and maintenance.

Maryeski and Bareis have taken that premise and expanded it into a successful means of creating a healthy and rewarding range of activity for New London County youth in need of an outlet.

“It’s really easy to find yourself getting invested in New London,” he added. “And it’s rewarding to find yourself working with the local youth who can truly benefit from the kinds of activities we’re encouraging through Bike New London. But it’s no simple task.”

Maryeski has set out to teach high school students how to operate a fleet of bikes and use them for traveling to all the local schools where they help maintain grounds and gardens.

“If we’re successful in making these bikes available to them for travel, and for them to get around to take care of various responsibilities, then we’ve attained that positive element we’re seeking,” he said.

Maryeski may travel the world and taste its grandest wonders, but he then returns to tiny New London to spread a similar zest for life in local youth — and in struggling adults — so they, too, might experience something of what drives his own pulsating spirit.

So what drives him? It goes back to that old Jimmy Stewart movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which the theme is fairly consistent with Maryeski’s own philosophy: “Live for yourself through your own experience; live for others by sharing those experiences.”

It has to do with one of the oldest themes of human nature … “We’re all in this together.”