Have you heard of the Kindness Rocks craze? We’ve had it in our hometown of Beverley since the Summer of 2017. It was one of the first in the UK and it went M-E-N-T-A-L. It now seems to be in all parts of the UK, and no doubt the upcoming Summer holidays will ignite it a little bit more.
What are Kindness Rocks?
A kindness rock is a painted rock or pebble. You can decorate them how you like (the norm is to use acrylic paints, sealed with yacht varnish) and then hide them for others to find. When you find one, you can keep it or re-hide somewhere else for someone else to find. It’s like a gigantic Easter Egg hunt. With rocks.
How do I join in?
For a start, you can paint your own rock and hide it for someone else. You can also join one of the many online kindness rocks communities, such as on Facebook or by following a hashtag on Twitter or Instagram. Members post online where they have hidden rocks, and are encouraged to post pics of their finds. When painting your rock, make sure to put instructions on the back of how to share the find, such as the community hashtag or the name of your Facebook group. A big part of the project is to see how far the rocks go. Our local group has pics posted from Australia and New Zealand, and the US and Canada. People take them on holiday and hide them, and the pics find their way back to our Facebook group.
Is it popular?
Well yes, it is. You see, it’s easily spread. The instructions on the backs of the rocks make it easy for people to know how to join in and to know where to post pics. Our Facebook group grew from nothing to thousands within a few weeks. Membership is currently 22k and growing.
Last summer, in our town, people were addicted to it. The shops ran out of yacht varnish. Homeowners were sadly having to bring in their rocks from their own front gardens as they kept mysteriously vanishing (and then probably turning up a week later on Benidorm prom painted like a Minion or adorned with a unicorn). People had to be reminded not to go to the beach and take rocks to paint. East Yorkshire already has a massive coastal erosion problem. Beverley Rocks was possibly not the best thing to happen to the local area!
I had to turn off notifications for the Facebook group as every other post I saw was rocks-related. There were questions about paints, and varnishes, and where to get rocks. The local DIY store got in on the act by moving their bags of decorative rocks to the front of the store and likely putting an extra £1 on them. I could take the kindness rocks craze no more!
I did pop back into the Facebook group last week to see how it was doing and could see it was still going strong. The school holidays give it a little boost, and then the bad weather kills it off a little. But it’s an activity for all weathers really – the rain providing some down time to get the rocks painted, and the sun encouraging people out to hide them and find them all over again.
See Yorkshire Tot’s post about Yorkshire Rocks with handy links to all of
the Yorkshire rocks Facebook groups!
It’s a great activity for all ages. I know people without children who are huge fans. The rocks display a wide range of talent; from splashes of random paint from toddlers, through to artwork worthy of being in a gallery, the rocks are amazing. It’s a great activity for disabled people too. It really is a very inclusive project.
Last Summer, we found lots and re-hid them. We did post pics on social media too, but we didn’t find the time to paint very many of our own. We thoroughly enjoyed taking part too (even if I did have to mute the Facebook group) and we will probably join in again this summer.
Have you got a Kindness Rocks craze near you?
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