Painted, hidden stones are intended to brighten a stranger’s day
By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
Rocks are everywhere, but few among us pause for a closer look.
A group in the Burlington area is making it so you should stop and consider the object of your gaze.
The rocks they place throughout the area are going viral on social media, and are painted in vibrant colors – rainbows, peace signs, sport logos, cats, slogans and more.
Kelsey Shoemaker started the Burlington Kindness Rocks movement, and its adjoining Facebook page, just less than two years ago.
Shoemaker said more than 300 people joined the page and started painting and hiding rocks in the 28 days leading up to June 21.
“There are new people picking and finding them,” Shoemaker said. “It’s just become a very active page.”
Megan Murphy started the Kindness Rocks movement in 2015 when she left a rock on a beach in Cape Cod, Mass. emblazoned with the slogan “You Got This.”
According to a podcast on the Kindness Rocks website – www.thekindnessrocksproject.com – Murphy would walk a beach near her home as she came to grips with her parents both being deceased when she started having children.
Shoemaker said the reach of the Kindness Rocks movement now numbers more than 400 separate Facebook pages devoted to people painting and hiding rocks.
Imitation as flattery
Shoemaker said she got the idea for a Kindness Rocks group centered in Burlington from a similar group in Walworth County.
“I got the idea from East Troy,” Shoemaker said. “I found it so fun I wanted to drive my kids out there.”
Shoemaker said the group really took off when she convinced Burlington’s Plaza Theatre to help her produce Golden Ticket rocks. Earlier this year Shoemaker hid rocks that featured a movie pass to the Plaza Theatre.
Shoemaker is a homemaker who lives in Rochester with her husband, Robert, a draftsman, and their three boys – ages 1, 3 and 5.
The rocks are hidden in public places – typically parks, libraries and other public places. Shoemaker said the activity is cheap and gets people moving.
“It gets kids outside, and a lot of people praise that,” Shoemaker said. “We actually have quite a few adults who rock hunt without kids.”
Shoemaker said painted rocks from the Burlington area have turned up in locales such England, Scotland and Canada.
“They’re traveling,” Shoemaker said. “But there really are a lot that stay in town and get hid over and over.”
To read the entire story see the June 27 edition of the Burlington Standard Press or the June 28 editions of the Waterford Post and Westine Report.
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