“You rock,” “Be the light,” “You are a Winner” and other inspirational messages painted on about 100 rocks will plant seeds of kindness in a new rock garden at the Valpo Creates Center on Indiana Avenue in Valparaiso.
Members of PEO, a philanthropic educational organization, donated the rocks Thursday at the Valparaiso Creative Council, where the garden will be developed. Other organizations and individuals are encouraged to donate their own rocks to the cause, local chapter president Laura Hrusovsky said.
She and Patty McMahon, whose brainchildren the kindness rocks are, are excited about the partnership with the VCC.
VCC Executive Director Jessica Corral said the kindness rock garden will be created in the spring. As it grows with other painted rocks, it will emphasize the extent of kindness in Valparaiso – or as Hrusovsky called it, “a visual display of colorful positivity.”
“These 100 stones you see were gathered, hand-painted and breathed upon by these women here,” she said amid a crowd of PEO members.
“We’re a community that looks out for its neighbors and truly cares about each other,” Hrusovsky said.
Mayor Jon Costas said people know how important kindness is but need to be reminded of it daily, something the kindness rock garden will help with.
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The city is planning a civility summit next year, he said, to emphasize the importance of appreciating a variety of perspectives.
The PEO members met in small groups for rock-painting parties. Corral said a similar event is likely in the future for community members to get involved. The PEO chapter’s members are all retired, so Corral wants to emphasize getting children involved, too.
PEO has been around for 157 years, Hrusovsky said.
“It’s just women getting together, helping women,” McMahon said. The philanthropic group reaches into members’ pockets to raise funds for scholarships and loans for women rather than doing community fundraising. Among the beneficiaries are women who want to go back to school.
Kindness rocks are no strangers in Valparaiso. Others have painted rocks and hidden them throughout the city for others to find, replace with their own painted rock and perhaps hide the found rock elsewhere.
“My idea was let’s show that this is Valpo kindness. Let’s show that this is a garden of rocks and let people add to the garden,” McMahon said.
“It would be a nice thing to be known about, that Valpo is a kind community,” she said.
Painting the rocks is “not hard at all,” McMahon said.
“I went out to the dunes and picked up rocks for everybody, and then we got together in small groups and painted,” she said. After the paint dried, the rocks were sealed with an acrylic spray so they can be left out in the weather.
The ideal stone has a flat surface for the message. “When it’s bumpy, the pen bumps,” McMahon said.
“This was my first time. I knew about them, but I had never done them,” she said.
McMahon and Hrusovsky are excited to see the kindness rock garden grow.
“May it serve as a colorful sanctuary of encouragement,” Hrusovsky said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.