Sending Creative Messages of Thanks

SEELEY LAKE – It's not every day someone receives a message of thanks or encouragement on a rock. The Seeley Lake Elementary students are expressing their gratitude to the firefighters and others that helped them through the fires this summer with a Kindness Rocks project.

SLE art teacher Sharon Teague came up with the idea of painting rocks with her art students after viewing the website kindnessrocks.org.

"The premise is you [decorate] the rocks, you hide them and then people find them and it makes their day better," said Teague. "I borrowed someone's idea and we tweaked it to make it our own."

Teague collected 250 rocks from the creek by her home. The seventh and eighth grade art students worked with all the classes painting a symbol or scene on one side of the rock and writing a message or signing the back. The younger grades painted things that they thought would brighten someone's day. The older students were encouraged to paint symbols or scenes specifically thanking the firefighters for their efforts on the Rice Ridge Fire.

The original intent was to hide the rocks around fire camp and in and around fire trucks.

"I wish that the firefighters from far away were still here," wrote sixth-grader Hattie Batchelder. "That way we could have given the rocks to them in person to take home."

Since most of the firefighters have left, they are hoping to mail them to the different teams that were on the fire as well as support those that are still here.

"Even though [the firefighters] didn't receive their rocks in person, I still dedicate my rocks to them," wrote sixth-grader Cadence Mauldin.

Third grade teacher Kelsi Luhnow was having her students make posters thanking the firefighters until Teague presented her with the kindness rocks project. She gave her students the option to make their rock for anyone that helped them this summer. While many chose to thank the firefighters, some had a specific firefighter that they had connected to through the summer and others painted their rock for someone else that they were grateful for.

"Instead of us forcing them to do something, they have more ownership over it," said Luhnow. "They can connect to the kindness."

Luhnow feels that teachers' jobs go beyond academics to include character building and social skills. This project taught the students to think of others and demonstrate kindness and empathy.

Eighth-grader Sariah Maughan said she had a lot of fun working with the younger students and helping them with their rocks.

Classmate Chase Haines agreed and thought it would be "pretty cool if other schools did it too."

Eighth-grader Tara Cahoon thought it was a fun project and it showed the kids how to say thank you in a "new artistic way."

"I think that it is important to give thanks to the firefighters for fighting the fires and keeping us safe," wrote sixth-grader Ava Thornsberry. " This is our way of saying thank you for risking [their] lives for us."

 

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