KINDNESS ROCKS IN THE TOWN OF WASHINGTONVILLE

By TONI-ANN HOM 

Spreading kindness and love throughout the community is something that Sophia Molinari has always enjoyed. Sophia, along with her mother, Christine, were moved by an inspirational way to spread these acts of kindness and wanted to bring it into their own community. 

On April 19th, Sophia and Christine were in their basement and started to paint rocks they had purchased. They painted a tribute or picture on the front of each of the stones along with a little saying on the back that was connected to the front image. The back of the rock also included their facebook page, “Kindness Rocks in Our Community”.  These rocks were meant to spread kindness and, hopefully, get the whole community involved in spreading the love. 

After hiding the rocks around the town, people and businesses began to find them and post pictures of them to the facebook page. The rocks that were found could either be hidden again, kept, or people could even be inspired to paint their own rocks to hide.  Sophia and Christine hid their works of art at businesses such as Betty’s Country Kitchen, Weirs, The New York Performing Arts Center, and Nailed It Hardware Store.  To help spread their act of kindness, the owner of Betty’s gave the family who found the rock hidden at their store a free meal along a $20 gift certificate.  That family hid the rock once again for another family to find, this spreading the love.

These special rocks have also been placed in random places throughout New York and New Jersey. Sophia and Christine have received messages from as far away as Australia because people have been so inspired by the concept.

TONI-ANN HOM FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY

Christine expressed that she had good reason for wanting to help her daughter with her mission.  “One of the main reasons was for my daughters to have a sense of community and to boost Sophia’s confidence. I wanted to give her something to help her be more like herself and to help her give back to the community and the area.”

Sophia is vivacious and filled with kindness which means these rocks were meant to represent what she loves. “I like it because almost everyone knows about it and we’re gaining more followers on our facebook page. I also like it because more people know who I am. It is really fun because it makes me happy and I like scavenger hunts and hiding things.”  Clearly, Sophia is thankful to be able to a part of such a wonderful opportunity. 

This is the first year that Sophia and Christine have started this wonderful act, and hopefully within a couple of months, more and more people will be inspired to spread their own acts of kindness. In total, they painted over 150 rocks and about 30 of them have already been discovered. Keep an eye out for these rocks throughout the town and inspire others to paint their own.  Let’s keep the tradition alive and help Sophia spread the love.