BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – You never know when you might stumble -- literally -- upon a movement growing in Brevard County.
Painted rocks are popping up across the county, some with motivational sayings, others with pretty pictures. The rocks were placed there on purpose waiting for people to find them. According to our news partners at Florida Today, the rocks are part of a pay-it-forward effort started on Facebook called Brevard Rocks.
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With more than 1,200 members, the group is growing each day, said Jen Justiniano, who started the movement in Brevard. More and more painted inspirational rocks will be scattered from Titusville all the way down to Malabar and beyond. With members all over the county, rocks can be found just about anywhere: public parks, outside stores, in parking lots, in libraries.
If you find a rock, you either keep it and make another to leave somewhere else, or drop off the rock in a new location once you’re ready to part with it. On the back of the rocks, members of the group usually paint the name of the Facebook group, “Brevard Rocks,” so that those who find the rocks can see what the movement is about and share where they found the rock. Pictures are posted in the group nearly every day of members painting rocks or of those who have found a rock and want to share the experience.
“If you keep it, you’re encouraged to paint more or place more, but you don’t have to,” said Justiniano. “The whole idea is to spread joy and happiness. The goal is whoever finds the rock, it brightens their day or gives them joy.”
There are no rules to the pay-it-forward movement, only that participants keep it family-friendly, because many children are involved in the group. Justiniano also emphasized that those who leave rocks behind should make sure they don’t leave them inside stores, especially stores that sell painted rocks, such as Michael’s, she said.
Justiniano said the movement started during Hurricane Matthew. The storm was stressing her out, so she started to paint rocks as a way to ease her mind. She posted some pictures of her rocks online and was told about a pay-it-forward rock group in Canada.
“We don’t have anything like that around here, so that’s how I came up with the Brevard Rocks Facebook group,” said Justiniano. “That weekend I painted I don’t know how many rocks, and we started placing them.”
Justiniano, a Melbourne resident, dropped off her first set of rocks in Wickham Park with her two children.
“We grabbed the bag and placed them randomly,” she said. “And from there, I kept the bag with me and placed them anywhere; stores we go into, outside of restaurants, pretty much anywhere.”
The movement took off, she said. People found the rocks, joined the group and started to participate themselves, painting rocks and leaving them behind.
It’s become a family affair for members like Kat Poteet of Titusville and Monica McCraney of Palm Bay. Poteet said she regularly paints rocks with her two grandchildren, and they make a day of it. They take a craft kit to the park, paint the rocks and then hide them, often making friends in the process. McCraney said it’s a great way to bond with her daughter.
“It's so much fun for the kids especially. I love painting with my daughter,” she said. “We do 'mommy and me' rocks. I paint one and I will see her painting one exactly like I did. We hide those together and those are sometimes hard to part with.”
A lot of members said they keep a bag of painted rocks in the trunks of their cars and drop them off whenever the mood strikes.
“For us, we don't really decide a place. We keep them in our car after they are finished, and when we get out to run errands, we pick a few and drop them off,” said Samantha Finch, a Malabar resident. “There were a few we did that we felt should be seen by the right crowd, like a plumbers crack rock -- we left that at Home Depot where plumbers would find it.”
And perhaps the fun isn’t always in finding a rock, but in leaving them behind or spreading the kindness vs. receiving it.
“You get a little burst of excitement when you leave a rock somewhere and you get that feeling again when you go by and see that it's been found,” said Jennifer Decker of Palm Bay. “Sometimes people will post their find in the group, but sometimes they don't. It’s cool to see the reaction from those who post that they found a rock you hid.”
As for painting the rock, anything goes. From sloppy toddler art to intricate details, the rocks can appear in many forms.
“We just use our imagination. We look at the rock and think, ‘Does it look like something?’ If not, we might paint flowers on it or words of encouragement or nature scenes, rainbows,” said Poteet.
Justiniano recommends that those who participate use acrylic paint and seal the rock with something water resistant, such as Mod Podge or spray-paint sealer. However, there are no requirements to participate and you can decorate the rock with whatever or however you want. The only thing she hopes is that people take pictures of the rocks they paint and share them in the group, along with posting pictures if they find a rock, to keep the movement going.
“There’s so much negativity and sadness, it’s nice there’s these little glimmers of happiness spread in between that,” she said.
Those interested in participating can visit Facebook.com and search for “Brevard Rocks."