Front-line health care workers in Sudbury rocked with kindness

Jackie Balleny of Sudbury finds painting rocks meditative and calming.

But it's the messages on those rocks that she hopes will help create a ripple effect in the community.

The founder of the Sudbury Kindness Rocks Project recently left a pile of her work at Health Sciences North and Public Health Sudbury and Districts sites on Paris Street.

They were meant for the health care workers to show her appreciation for their efforts on the front-line of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Just a regular person that is just reaching out to try and change the world one little message at a time," Balleny said of her kindness rocks.

The project first began when she was spending a winter in Florida several years ago.

Balleny says at the time she gathered a bunch of shells from the local beach, painted mandala meditations on them and then scattered them back on the beach for others to find.

"It just changed their perspectives. There were smiles on their faces and the kids were looking for more of them, and it grew from that," she said.

That was when Balleny noticed the Kindness Rocks Project online, which had been started by a woman in Cape Cod.

When Balleny returned to Sudbury she began painting uplifting and kind messages on rocks and leaving them around the city, on park benches, sidewalks and other spots during her walks.

"That one message at the right time can shift thinking and hopefully have people be kinder to each other."

"If you find the rock and it speaks to you, or if it speaks to somebody else that you want to share it with — then by all means keep it," she said.

Lifting spirits on the front-line

Early last Wednesday, Balleny left a small sign and a pile of about 50-60 rocks painted with messages of hope, courage and support by the hospital in Sudbury.

"With social distancing it's hard to give a hug."

She set the rocks out just before a shift change, knowing HSN staff would be waiting in a lineup outside to get screened before they could enter the hospital.

"Something that would lift their spirits when they realized that even though they're being inconvenienced by having to wait in line, that the community appreciated them and all the work they are doing," Balleny said.

With fear gripping so many people, she says she wanted to recognize those who are pushing that fear aside to work on the front-lines during the pandemic.

"Every single day they face that [fear] in a much more elevated way, than we who are socially isolated at home."

Bellamy calls her portable messages a 'little thing' for her to say thank you.

"Thank you so much for what you are doing, the sacrifices that you're making and that their families are making in supporting them, as well."

She encourages others to show their kindness and create their own painted rocks to spread throughout their own neighbourhoods.

"Take a moment to reflect and be kind to each other," Balleny said.

"The world is a much better place when we leave it with kindness."