Kindness rocks growing in popularity
painted rocks are left for others to find and re-hide.
In Shelburne County, there are two kindness rocks projects.
Earlier this fall, Shelburne resident Hollz Morrison started the Shelburne NS Rock Facebook group, after finding a kindness rock in the Halifax Public Gardens from the Halifax rocks group.
“I thought it was a really cool idea,” said Morrison. “Generally in the winter I like to keep busy with my hands doing puzzles and things like that. I thought it was a good idea and something we could do here.”
Morrison started the group with 10 rocks. It didn’t take long for the group to grow and others to start painting rocks and hiding them.
“Quickly people jumped on board and are painting and hiding all the time,” said Morrison. “People and their kids are doing it. The kids enjoy finding them so much. The kids will find two or three and keep their favourite and then re-hid the rest.”
Morrison said initially she wanted to follow and watch where the rocks go and see how far they could go.
“The idea behind it is to paint rocks and hide them around Shelburne in hopes that locals or visitors can find them and post a selfie or pic of the rock,” reads the description of the group. “Then they can choose (to) re- hide the rock anywhere in the world they choose. I would love to see how far they could travel but keeping it is an option also.”
So far, Morrison said some of the Shelburne NS Rocks have made it as far as Cape Breton and Alberta, not to mention throughout Shelburne County.
Little Hidden Gems meanwhile – started almost a year ago by Shag Harbour resident Christy Conrad – has had kindness rocks distributed as far away as Peru, Jamaica, across the U.S. and throughout Canada.
The inspiration for Conrad starting the Facebook group Little Hidden Gems came on a road trip with her husband Mark.
“We enjoy finding those spots that are little hidden gems. The places very few people know about. One day we found a cute little rock. It was painted to look like a ladybug and had instructions to re-hide the rock for others to find.”
Sidelined by an injury last winter, Conrad began painting rocks to hide.
“People get really excited to find them,” she said. “They think it’s a great idea because it's so positive.
Conrad is the only one who paints the Little Hidden Gems rocks, which come with instructions to post a selfie or a picture of the rock to the Facebook group when it is found.
The Shelburne NS Rocks also has similar instructions.