Choosing Kindness Rocks For Westwood Sisters

Sisters Katherine and Charlotte Santos are spreading joy to Westwood senior citizens who receive Meals on Wheels through their hand-painted “Kindness Rocks”. "We got inspired to make pocket Kindness Rocks because we like writing kind things on them and decorating them for people to see and make them smile,” explains Charlotte, an eight-year-old second grader at Martha Jones School.

“We wanted to make senior citizens smile because it might be a sad time for them,” agrees her older sister, ten-year-old fourth grader Katherine.

Their mother, Keri, explained that the sisters had made Kindness Rocks a few years ago, and deliberately chose rocks that were pocket-sized. “[Charlotte and Katherine] gave one of the quarter-sized rocks (decorated with a heart) to a very sick relative to let him know we were thinking of him. He kept the little rock on his hospital tray table. We were thinking about him recently and about others to whom little decorated rocks might provide comfort: isolated senior citizens, people in nursing homes, or people in hospitals. I reached out to Lina [Arena-DeRosa] at the Senior Center to ask if she had a way to get the rocks to isolated seniors at home or those in nursing homes. She suggested Meals on Wheels deliveries which seemed like a perfect fit.”

“It might be sad for [senior citizens] now because they are alone or scared and can't be with anyone. We hope the pocket rocks will make them happy. We chose very small rocks ([the size of] quarters, dimes, nickels) that fit in your pocket and are easy to carry—that's why they are called pocket rocks," says Katherine.

“The rocks are so small that senior citizens can carry them around and if they are feeling sad, they can take them out of their pocket and look at them and not feel sad,” Charlotte adds.

Keri serves on the boards of both the Foundation for Westwood Education and Westwood Community Chest. She reports that the president of the Foundation has spoken with the Westwood Public Schools about their needs in the era of COVID-19. The Foundation is anticipating a greater number of funding requests during this time and is working with WPS’ faculty about this prospect. Keri adds that WCC has seen a much larger number of requests from Westwood residents during this time.

Did you see the sign a Westwood teenager made?