Owensboro native Suzanne Sook launched OBKY Rocks earlier this year to spread kindness in the community. Sook paints the rocks and, with the help of her daughters, spreads them in common areas across the community for people to find.
Sook first encountered the concept during her travels. She said it’s called the Kindness Rock Project and knew she had to bring it to Owensboro. She launched a Facebook page called OBKY Rocks, where people can upload photos of the rocks they find.
“I started painting rocks in February, so it’s only been a few months, but the entire idea came from the Kindness Rock Project,” Sook said. “I’m just hoping this will put a smile on somebody’s face.”
She said she typically paints the rocks with encouraging phrases or scripture; sometimes, it’s just an image meant to make someone laugh. As more people learn about the project, she said they will typically send her pictures, and the Facebook page hasn’t garnered as much publicity as she had hoped.
“I paint a lot of rocks, but a tiny percentage of them get posted on Facebook,” she said. “On the back of each rock it says to post or rehide and to post an image to the site. Little kids seem to really like them. You know, you’re just walking along, and you might find one, and it’s fun.”
Sook added that it’s simple, cheap, and doesn’t require much of her time. Recently, she’s been hosting a group of ladies for food and fellowship, where they will spend some time painting new rocks.
“It only takes about ten to 15 minutes to paint a rock, and scattering them gives me a good reason to get outside,” she said. “My daughters will take out several at a time and hide them around town, and it’s fun for them because they like to see if people find them.”
The family typically scatters the rocks in public places like parks and playgrounds, but she said they’ve also placed them at churches and schools. Another fun thing they do is take them on vacation and put them on various hiking trails or paths.
“People will also ask me to make them some to take on their trips, so they can leave them places when they go somewhere,” Sook said. “I think they just want to see if somebody will post it.”
Sook said there are rock painting groups all across Facebook, and she enjoys following other pages for inspiration. And while some of the rocks are her original art, several are her attempts to recreate what she’s seen elsewhere.”
“It’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush on our end when we see that someone has found one,” she said. “I’ll often go out to see if they’ve been picked up, and they typically have. I don’t know what happens with them. Maybe they’ve been rehidden, or perhaps they’re sitting on someone’s sink and making them smile every day.”
