When graphic artist Margie Hunter and her daughter Dani dropped their first hand-painted rock alongside the neighborhood walking path that passes their house on Graywood Way, they didn’t foresee the ripple effect that particular rock would have. What began as a modest attempt to spread cheer during the isolating days of the COVID-19 pandemic has blossomed into a community landmark known as The Kindness Rocks Project (Va.), transforming the Hunters’ yard into a neighborhood hub for kindness and gratitude.
“It started during covid,” Margie recalled. “We have a walking path that runs between my house and my neighbor’s house, and there were a lot of families out walking together, just spending time together.”
Margie and Dani got an idea: why not paint rocks with uplifting messages and place them along their fence line for passersby to discover?
“We were just trying to be as positive as possible,” Margie explained. “We painted the rocks in really bright colors. We wanted people coming around the corner or walking on the path to be like, ‘Oh, wow. What is that?’”
When their neighbors started collecting the positivity rocks, the project expanded.
“It got to a point where we couldn’t keep up, because people would walk along, find a rock that they liked with a nice message, and then they’ d pick it up and take it home,” Margie said. “We got the idea of painting a bunch of rocks with no messages and lined the entire fence line.”
Dani also suggested arranging the colorful rocks in a rainbow pattern, which became a recurring theme as the Hunters continued to expand their creation.
“We were trying to think of other ways to add more color, more color, more color,” Margie explained. They hung colorful buckets of rocks along the fence, so people could easily take them if they wished, and added a bench in an inviting shady spot nearby.
The neighborhood’s response was supportive, Margie said. When the Hunters asked people to donate old aluminum soda cans for a new element, their neighbors happily obliged, contributing bags of old cans in anticipation of what new art would emerge. The Hunters fashioned the cans into the flowers and butterflies now sprinkled throughout the project. “People were always asking us, ‘What’s next?’ They were just so excited to see the next thing we were going to add,” Margie recalled.
One of the project’s most striking features is an oak tree in a colorful “sweater” Margie crocheted during lockdown. It has become a Wishing Tree, festooned with handwritten notes describing visitors’ hopes and dreams. “We made these little tags, and we have Sharpies out there, so people can write their wishes on these little tags and then hang them on the tree,” Margie explains. “There are probably thousands of wishes on that tree now. Most of them are wishing for happiness and world peace, but sometimes you’ll run across but one that is something that makes you realize, ‘Gosh, this is something I could do for somebody.’”
People have responded by donating a requested item to a child or doing a favor for someone who needs one. What started as an effort to express a little neighborly encouragement is now a landmark where people share gratitude, memorialize a pet, make their own small mark in their neighborhood, or simply pause to reflect on their day.
“It’s a peaceful, very positive place to come,” Margie said. “It’s very welcoming.”
Recently, she added a “trading post” for the neighborhood’s children, based in a playhouse she weatherproofed. “I just set it out there and put a couple books and some stuffed animals in it,” she explained, “and now people bring their own stuffed animal and will trade for one that’s already in there. It’s fun to go out there and see what did somebody bring today? What is something that somebody wanted to share with other people? A lot of kids in the neighborhood visit regularly, and when they’re done with a toy, they’ll think, ‘I want to share it with someone else.’”
The way their neighbors have taken The Kindness Rock Project (Va.) to heart has made the Hunters even more appreciative for the good in their community. “It’s human nature to focus so much on the negative things are being said to you, and not on that one positive thing that might be being said. With this, we get so much more positive out of it,” Margie said. “It’s grown so far beyond what it originally started as. It’s taken on a life of its own. I’m just the caretaker at this point.
“It shows you there really is a lot of good out there and people want a way to share and encourage that. That’s what it’s turned into: this is a spot where you can come and just give encouragement to other people.”
Learn more about The Kindness Rocks Project (Va.) on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thekindnessrocksprojectva/.
“It’s a peaceful, very positive place to come.”
“It shows you there really is a lot of good out there and people want a way to share and encourage that."