Regional School Unit 73 Directors at the April 14 meeting learned of the Kindness Rocks project librarians at the elementary and high school are collaborating on. After the meeting, Board Chair Robert Staples holds one of the rocks that are being left throughout the community for finders to enjoy then put in a new location. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
JAY — Brightly painted rocks may be showing up in unexpected places in the coming weeks in an effort to brighten someone’s day and show that people care.
Anyone finding one of these rocks is asked to move it to a different location or give it to someone to keep the Kindness Rocks project going.
The reasoning behind the Kindness Rocks project was explained by Spruce Mountain District Librarian Amy Ryder during the Regional School Unit 73 Board of Directors meeting Thursday night, April 14.
Each year elementary students read books nominated for the Maine Chickadee Award, she said.
“This year, the main character of one of the books was a rock,” Ryder noted. “We had seen painted kindness rocks around, and thought this would be a valuable project for our students to do together. The idea is, students paint slogans or artwork onto a rock that might brighten someone’s day.”
A basket of colorful rocks decorated by students and staff at Spruce Mountain High School is seen after the Regional School Unite 73 Board of Directors meeting April 14. Librarians at the high and elementary schools are collaborating on a project to spread kindness and joy throughout the school communities and beyond. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
The rock is left somewhere for someone to find. The finder places it somewhere else for another person to find.
“Potentially, the rock made by our students could travel a great distance and be enjoyed by many people,” Ryder said. “It seemed like a great project, but also a lot of work for Spruce Mountain Elementary School alone. So we recruited the best helpers we have: the (high school) students. They love to help us prep materials to use with our younger students.”
Several older students volunteered to clean the rocks, paint a base coat on them, and seal labels explaining the project on the back, she said.
“Once they were dry, the rocks went to the elementary school to be decorated by our students,” Ryder noted. “The high school students also decorated some, because they could not miss out on the most fun part.
“Then we sealed them and gave them back to the kids to place into the community,” she said. “We painted over 300 rocks altogether, and I moved them back and forth between the schools a total of six times, which was a great workout.”
The kids are excited to know that their kind words or art could make a difference in the community, and could potentially spread much further than the district towns, Ryder said.
“In order for the kindness to spread, our rocks now need to get out into the community and beyond,” she added. “This is where you can help us. We are inviting the Spruce Mountain School Board to join us by placing one of our kindness rocks somewhere. We hope to show our students that their kindness traveled far beyond the school and positively impacted our community.”
Ryder shared rocks with directors that were painted by high school students and staff. She encouraged anyone traveling during vacation to take a rock with them and leave it there to extend the project’s reach beyond local communities.
Director Phoebe Pike said she remembered high school students helping while she was in elementary school and then being an older student helping younger ones. Seeing both sides of the coin has stayed with her, she noted.
“This sense of community is wonderful,” Pike said.
“I know how far that interaction with high school students go,” Director Elaine Fitzgerald said. She still stays connected with students who helped her classes while a teacher, she noted.
In other business directors approved an eighth grade trip to the Museum of Science in Boston on May 25.
Eight grade students have spent their entire middle school career in the shadow of the pandemic, middle school principal Caroline “Carrie” Luce said. The celebratory trip, not based on academics is wonderful, giving students something to look forward to, she noted.
Grants will provide admission for the middle school’s 99 students, another grant will help with busing, and money was put into the budget for trips, Luce said.
The Museum of Science at any age is fabulous, Fitzgerald said.
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