A mother-daughter duo have added a little more colour to the city with their 'YK Rocks' initiative.
Beverly Pilgrim has been collecting rocks from different parts of the world for her garden for years. This summer she decided to has teamed up with her daughter Emma, 11, to paint rocks with bright colours to leave them around town for others to find and post on social media.
"We've got rocks from Mexico and B.C., I've got rocks from China in my rock garden in front of my house and this year I just wanted to paint some of them," said Pilgrim.
"I thought this would be good for Emma because she's getting into the age where she's getting into social media so this could be a way of showing her the positive side of social media, instead of it being all about selfies and attention."
Pilgrim said she got the idea after reading about a community in the states where a group was passing painted rocks along through social media. Now Pilgrim wants to use her rocks to do the same, she has set up Facebook and Instagram accounts and all she asks people to do when they find her rocks is use the hashtag 'YK Rocks' so that she can share that her rocks have been found.
"I just ask that people put #ykrocks on the rocks if they paint any and then when they see them to put them online with the hashtag and pass the kindness around."
Pilgrim says that she has already seen the positives that the initiative has caused with children. She says that her daughter and her friends were extremely excited the first time someone found their rocks and that she can see the excitement from others when they upload their photos.
"It has been so amazing to see all of the kids' reactions on Facebook and Instagram when they have found a painted rock. Also, the kids who have planted rocks of their own get so excited when they see
it has been found," said Pilgrim
"Emma was so happy when her first one was posted on the Instagram group that we share. It has been showing her how even the small things can brighten someone's day."
The pair have already left close to 30 rocks around town themselves and have had others tell them that they've started to leave their own in parks and on trails.
Pilgrim asks that if anyone takes their rocks home that they paint a rock themselves for someone else. She hopes that one day the number of painters in town will be big enough that the initiative will regulate itself with more rocks being left than taken.
She'll be looking to grow the group by holding free painting workshops throughout the summer.
"We'll be having little workstations set up randomly throughout the summer at the city hall park and will have supplies for kids to paint their own rocks.
"We'll post on the Facebook page when we do that." said Pilgrim.
