KINDNESS ROCK STAR
Kindergartner helps brighten up his neighborhood
UPPER PROVIDENCE » When it comes to spreading smiles amid the coronavirus lockdown, Jack Russo rocks. Literally.
Jack, 6, lives with his mother Sherri and father Rick on Lewis Road, across from Upper Providence Elementary School, where he attends kindergarten.
He is also, according to his mom, “very creative and a really good painter.”
So when coronavirus locked down all schools in Pennsylvania and the Russo family found themselves living and working from home, “we had to come up with ways to entertain ourselves,” Sherri Russo said.
Jack’s father owns Russo
Landscaping “so we have a whole pile of smooth stones in the back yard,” said Sherri Russo.
That’s when Jack decided to put his artistic talent to use. Mom said she barely helps him.
“He really is quite the artist. He painted our Christmas card this year, a winter scene with a snowman and a Christmas tree.”
The family lives across from
“He is a special boy who is loved by everyone in our community.”
— Mom Sherri Russo
the Mingo Village subdivision, so that’s where most of the rocks go.
They paint flowers on them, bugs, trees, rainbows, sunny scenes and inspirational words. Then in the evenings, the two go for a walk through the neighborhoods near their home (along with their two Yorkies) and Jack places each of his happy rocks along the way.
Some are left on sidewalks, some on mailboxes or around mailboxes and some beside trees. Most of them are still there, while some have disappeared.
Brought to the phone, little Jack said he painted the rocks and, more significantly, gave them away “to make people smile.”
“I tried to keep some, but he insists we give them all away,” said Jack’s mom.
“He is special boy who is loved by everyone in our community,” Sherri Russo wrote in an email with some additional photos.
“For example, on his birthday on April 3rd, we put a sign out for everyone to honk six times for his birthday and it turned into a huge parade with six fire trucks from four different fire departments, two police departments with police cars and an officer on motorcycle leading the parade, and two trucking companies with dump trucks and tractors trailers, a school bus,” she wrote.
“Jack is pretty famous for being the mop boy for the Spring-Ford High School basketball teams,” so the birthday parade also included “the entire Spring-Ford Girls Basketball Team each in a separate car with their families and a couple from the boys basketball team and many members of the community that we didn’t even know,” she wrote.