North Naples women scatter ‘Kindness Rocks’ to make strangers smile

Be on the lookout for special ‘kindness rocks’ around Southwest Florida. They’re part of one group’s goal to spread joy by leaving art around town for strangers to find.

92-year-old Georgia Collins lives at assisted living facility Vi at Bentley Village. She says there’s a great joy in seeing someone else happy, “I think that they would give you the same in return.”

The North Naples women are part of a group at Vi that wants you to “have a sunny day,” so they’re creating colorful, cheerful pictures and positive messages on rocks.

“I’m working on a rock, a little dark-colored rock and it’s gonna be a great piece of art when I get finished,” said Barbara Metcalf, “A couple of ladies wrote blue skies, we have a lot about ‘be happy,’ ‘smiles.'”

Lifestyle Manager at Vi at Bentley Village Keri Gallagher says, “After the hurricane last year, they had people making kindness rocks and mailing them off to hurricane locations for people to find, to cheer them up, and I’m like well we can do that in our own community.”

Gallagher is a certified art therapist and brought ‘kindness rocks’ to the assisted living portion of Vi at Bentley Village because “It’s as simple as painting a rock… They get to have fun at the same time as thinking of somebody else and bringing a smile to someone in the community.”

Anyone can find and take home one of these rocks after the ladies have scattered them around the community.

“I hope I’ll put it in a place where someone will find it relatively easy, Metcalf said, “I’d be really happy to find one.”

Vi Director Laura Kendrick also says it’s a way that you can give back to the community “if you scatter them around local parks and things like that.”

Using rocks and paint to brighten a strangers day.

They also say anyone can create and abandon their own “kindness rocks” around town.

These women just scattered some around North Naples during a Monday field trip.

If you find one, let’s hope it brings a smile to your face and brightens your day, too.