Painted-rock hunts catch fire in Cape area

They’re colorful, hand-painted and hidden, but they’re not Easter eggs — they’re rocks, all over town for people to find.

SEMO Rocks, a Facebook group started in March by Lisa Rose and her fiance, Mark McEachern, has “just exploded,” McEachern said.

“We’ve been shocked at how this is taking off,” he said.

At first, McEachern said, he and Rose began painting rocks just for the fun of doing something creative together.

Rose then put the Facebook page together, McEachern said. While it went slowly at first, in the last couple of months, it’s caught fire in popularity, he said.

Painted rocks are seen Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Vacation Bible School in Jackson.Fred Lynch

As of Wednesday afternoon, the page had more than 2,500 members.

McEachern said they heard about the activity through a friend who suggested they check out another group on Facebook, The Kindness Project.

That page offers everything from tips on painting rocks to suggestions for smaller community pages, such as posting pictures as clues for people to hunt the rocks.

“It’s a lot of fun,” McEachern said.

McEachern said he and Rose get their rocks from Lotus Naturescapes in Ware, Illinois, where at least 30 types of stone and rock are available for sale.

“Some are perfect for what we do,” McEachern said. “Some have really cool character to incorporate different types of creativity.”

As to what kind of paint they use, McEachern said they’ve had good luck with cheap tubes of acrylic paint readily available in the craft aisle at local stores for at little as 50 cents each.

“Across the board, people have gotten creative,” he said, with some people using sparkly nail polish or paint pens, even using acrylic clear coat as a sealer.

But the materials don’t have to be expensive, McEachern said.

Misti Laws had her vacation Bible school students at Immaculate Conception in Jackson paint some rocks to hide or to spread Christian messages, Laws said.

Laws’ sister, Jaime Hayes, said her children love to hunt the rocks when they’re at the park in Jackson.

Her daughters, who are 1 and 3, “were both overjoyed to be able to join in on decorating their own while at VBS this year.”

Another enthusiast, Nikki Simmons, has a 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old twin boys. Simmons said they were at Capaha Park when her daughter noticed a painted rock that had “Semo Rocks on Facebook” on the back, so they found the group and joined.

Within a week, she said, they were painting their own rocks to hide.

“Now we paint anywhere from 20 to 50 rocks about every two weeks,” Simmons said.

She said it’s a fun way to get out and do something creative and active with the family.

“Even if you don’t have kids, it’s still a great activity,” Simmons said.

“The best part of this group is you can keep the rocks you find and paint your own to hide or hide the ones you found in a new place for others,” Simmons added.

That’s not to say the rocks are hidden only at parks. Some have been hidden in downtown Cape Girardeau, near schools or restaurants in Cape Girardeau and various locations throughout other towns, including Chaffee and Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

SEMO Rocks administrator McEachern said this is just fun.

“People have just jumped on it. And what a great thing for moms and dads and kids to do together. What mom or dad doesn’t like to see joy on their kids’ faces? It might as well be a million dollars these kids found,” he said.

Added McEachern, “It’s really cool to see that.”

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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