First-years paint, hide rocks for NSO service day

Have you ever noticed colorful rocks while you walked around the Lewis & Clark campus? Maybe a blue rock hidden in a bush with the words: “Never forget just how amazing you are” painted on the front? Or how about a rock laid under a tree with a night sky painted on it? Thanks to LC Rocks, these painted stones are one of many new colorful additions that can be found all around campus. 

LC Rocks was started this year by the Center for Social Change and Community Involvement (formerly known as Student Leadership and Service). The rocks were painted during this year’s New Student Orientation (NSO) as a service day project, where students spent time participating in an assortment of volunteer activities.

Emma Brown ’25 was among the students who participated in the LC Rocks project for NSO service day.

“We were in the Trail Room, and there were a bunch of little rocks and painting supplies,” Brown said. “We were told to just have fun with it and to create some cute little upbeat designs, anything that would brighten someone’s day. And on the back we wrote ‘hide me in another place’ to keep it going.”

Dr. Kayleigh McCauley-Sayer, associate dean of students and 

executive director of the Center, said that LC Rocks was started “as a way to uplift our own community.” She went on to describe how thrilled she was about the project’s success.

“It’s really catching on,” McCauley-Sayer said, “And it’s pretty exciting. I did not think that that would be something that would catch on, but students seem to be pretty into it. So I’m happy about that.”

Students do seem to enjoy finding the rocks. Cleo Lockhart ’25 said that they are a fantastic way for students to send anonymous positive messages to each other and to the broader LC community.

“I noticed one that said ‘you rock’ on it, which is funny because it was on a rock,” Lockhart said. “I loved it. I thought it was amazing. It’s a very beautiful thing because it really connects us as a community.” 

Students have also been re-hiding the rocks in very clever places after finding them. 

“I saw one 

on the outside of one of the posts on Howard bridge, which I thought was very creative,” Brown said. “I just love seeing them around campus.” 

Katie McGuire, a graduate assistant for the Center, has high hopes for the future of LC Rocks.

“The hope is that anyone can participate,” McGuire said. “If you have rocks or want to paint something, it doesn’t have to be just fixed to the rocks we paint through the Center. I know we’ve talked about having some folks get together and paint some rocks again. We had a lot of fun painting them during the NSO service day, and I’d imagine it would be a really good stress relief.”

The next time you take a stroll around campus, keep an eye out for these wonderful hidden surprises in the trees and bushes. Make sure to re-hide them to brighten someone else’s day too.

Photograph by Isabel Kroepfl