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Michigan Rocks!

Rock painting and hiding are
a fun family pastime.

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

f you’re out and about this sum-
mer and spy a flash of color,
check it out. It could be a hidden
painted rock. Its sole purpose: to
bring you a smile.
The rock painting craze is simple:
People paint rocks and hide them.
Rocks usually
include a label that
says, “Find us on
Facebook. Post a
photo and rehide.”
If the finder posts
a picture of the dis-
covered rock, the
painter can theo-
Beth Baldwin
retically follow its
journey as her rock
is rehidden and rediscovered.
Because not everyone in the world
is on Facebook, it doesn’t always
work, but thousands of people
worldwide are enjoying painting,
hiding, discovering and rehiding
rocks these days.
Who came up with such a rockin’
idea anyhow? Credit goes to Megan
Murphy of Cape Cod, Mass. Murphy
lost both her parents in her 20s and
found comfort in walking along
the beach, collecting heart-shaped
rocks and pieces of sea glass. On
a whim, one day she wrote moti-
vational messages on some rocks

with a Sharpie and left them on the
sand. A friend later sent her a text,
with a picture of one of those rocks
and said, “If you dropped this rock,
it made my day.” That’s when she
started her Kindness Rocks Project.
Beth Baldwin, 49, a Berkley mom,
read about Murphy’s Kindness
Rocks Project and started the
Berkley Rocks page in May 2017.
Most local Rocks pages have a few
hundred members, but Berkley
Rocks grew at an amazing rate and
currently has a following of 2,290
members!
One active participant in Berkley
Rocks and Huntington Woods Rocks
is Lesley Zwick, 41, a health coach
from Huntington Woods who is
affiliated with Young Israel of Oak
Park. Ever since last summer, she
has been painting and hiding rocks
together with her children, Emma,
11, Madelyn, 9, and Elliot, 7.
“It’s so much fun painting rocks,
even though I’m not really a great
artist so its nothing extravagant. It’s
usually just happy messages, posi-
tive words, smiley faces, whatever
floats my boat,” Zwick said.
Hiding and discovering rocks
is also a huge part of their fun.
Last year, the Zwicks traveled to
Memphis, hid their rocks there and

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July 12 • 2018

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