Painting Peace Rocks is fun; it’s easy; and it changes the world one person at a time. Here are 5 easy steps:

1) Gather smooth river rocks from where you live. This is a fun activity to do with family and friends. It’s introspective to collect rocks by yourself.

2) Once you have gathered your rocks, paint them with non-toxic, craft paint. This is an activity that draws people together.

Host a Peace Rocks painting party! We have painted Peace Rocks with family members as well as friends. We have also painted Peace Rocks with strangers, yet after the hour or two we spend together sharing and learning about each other while we were painting our rocks, we are no longer strangers.

Leave rocks to dry about 24 hours. You can also use a hair dryer or craft heat gun for faster dry time.

3) Once the rocks have dried, paint words, phrases, or images on the rocks with paint pens or with paint and thin paint brushes. Paint words of peace, love, joy, or any other words or phrases that hold special meaning to you. When you are in the mindset of peace, love, and hope, begin to imagine the possibilities of how these thoughts will promote like-minded thoughts to those who receive your Peace Rocks. This intention of love, peace, hope, joy will ripple out into the world.

4) Once words are dry, use clear, acrylic spray for Peace Rocks that will be placed outside and exposed to the weather. The words and paint will last longer if protected. Even if the words or phrases fade a little, it’s okay. Your intention will have already been released out into the world.

What's Next?

 Now, if that wasn’t fun enough, now comes the magic. You get to share your Peace Rock masterpieces with the rest of the world. You have specially chosen, painted, and inscribed these wise river rocks with your messages of wisdom and now you get to share them with people of the world. It’s time to release them out to touch the lives of all who see them. Give them to friends and family members, strangers you meet throughout your day, co-workers, professors, employees of businesses you frequent, and especially anyone you hear who’s traveling.

If you are shy like we were in the beginning of our Peace Rocks Project, and you don’t want to walk up to someone and present them with a Peace Rock, it is okay to leave Peace Rocks for people to find for themselves. The perfect person will find that one-of-a-kind creation you have gifted to the world. It seems like such a small task, but the implications are life-changing.

We get to decide what we want to do with our lives. We get to decide if we want to build people up or knock them down. It our decision. What if we all decide today to choose to have our words be used to help people - to help build them up - whatever they are going through on a particular day. Can you remember a time when you could have used a positive comment from a stranger instead of an unkind word?

We are each here on this Earth to show love and kindness to one another. We have the power to change the world. We’ll never know how many lives we can touch with a simple action of handing someone a Peace Rock or leaving a Peace Rock on a park bench for someone to find. We’ll never know how a Peace Rock can change someone’s life and what that person will do tomorrow because of the impact of that little painted river rock today.

Take this first step in changing your life and the lives of those you can touch through a simple act, a simple yet powerful message painted onto a little river rock that will change your world - our world- forever. Create a ripple effect today by creating a Peace Rock!

Please email us and let us know where you have taken your Peace Rock. And we love pictures!

As part of the celebration of the Season for Peace & Nonviolence, a  Peace Concert was planned at Unity of Bandon in April 2006. It featured the newly formed community Peace Choir as well as a number of other local musicians.  As part of that celebration, Jane decided to paint the word "peace" on some rocks and pass them out to all who attended the concert.

Little could she have known....she started an international movement!

In 2010, the folks at Unity of Bandon decided to paint more peace rocks and distribute them around the community.  Since then 1000's of rocks have been painted with messages of peace and they are found all over the world.

History

2006:    In April Jane decided to paint the word "peace" on some rocks and pass them out to all who attended the concert. That was the Beginning

2007:    On December 15, Jane passed away

2010:   Unity of Bandon decides to paint peace rocks and anonymously places them all over the community as part of a service project. 
              There is much excitement and speculation as to where these rocks come from!

2011:    Peace Rocks are sent to every United States Senator in their home state office as well as to President Obama and Vice-President Biden.
              They can now be found at the Berlin Wall, in Italy, China, Japan, and Africa.

2011:    March 18, Peace Rocks Facebook page is launched.

2012:    November: Peace Rocks Project representatives, Robin & Takashi Haruna and Amy Wilhite, are invited to participate in the Annual Rotary International United Nations Day, the theme being “Peace through Service”. The event features presentations from senior UN staff. Unfortunately Hurricane Sandy swept through the area and the PRP representatives were unable to travel to NYC, despite attempts to reach it by plane, train, and automobile.

2013:     “Peace Rocks!” video wins a number of awards at national and international film festivals.

2013:     Peace Rocks Project presentations are shared with 15 classrooms at local elementary and middle schools and students are given the opportunity to paint messages on rocks. Peace Rock painting gatherings are held at Unity of Bandon on the first Tuesday of each month.  This March, a family from Israel joins us and paints rocks to take back to their country.

2013:     May, Peace Rocks Project presents at Rotary International District Conference.  Conference participants learn about peace rocks and write messages on rocks to take with them.

2014:     Peace rocks continue to spread all over the world and are now in over 45 countries.  We continue to receive notes, emails, and photos from those participating.  Many schools, churches, and organizations around the world have joined us, bringing this project to their corner of the world.

2015:     A Box of Peace project begins. Lovingly packed flat-rate boxes of individually wrapped peace rocks are available at Unity of Bandon for anyone to pick up and send to someone of their choosing. Some are sent for love and support and some are sent to plant seeds of peace.

A Box of Peace project started in 2015. A Box of Peace is a lovingly packed flat-rate box of individually wrapped peace rocks available at Unity of Bandon for anyone to pick up and send to someone of their choosing. Some are sent for love and support and some are sent to plant seeds of peace and keep the ripples of peace flowing around the planet. You CAN make a difference!!

These are some of the many, many recipients of a Box of Peace:

• Umpqua Community College, following school shootings
• family who lost home in a fire
• Safe Haven Rescue Zoo provides rehabilitative services and permanent placement for wildlife in need
• Sue Ellen Monaghan, who lost her son, Tim, and donated his heart and other organs to save 4 people.  She was able to listen to her son's heartbeat inside of the heart recipient. 
• Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the location of fatal shootings of 9 church members in June 2015 
• Bright Dawn Buddhist Center in Coarsegold, CA
• Teacher Lindsey Painter at Hoffman Lane Elementary School in New Braunfels, TX, who will be donating a kidney to one of her 1st grade students.
• Sandy Hook School, Newtown, CT, following school shootings  
• children who have been hospitalized due to illness or accident
• Carmelite Nuns in Eugene
• Kevin and his Grandma who have popular on-line videos discussing everyday topics
• Zoe Johnson, who stood up against Anti-Gay Day at her high school in PA
• Dr. Amit Sood from Mayo Clinic & the Inner Sage Project-
• Courtney White's Class in Ohio who sent Thank You letters to health professionals treating Ebola patients in Africa
• Baitul Jannah Jame Masjid & Muslim Community Center, Inc
• Muslim American Society Youth Center, Brooklyn
• Planting Peace, a global nonprofit founded to spread peace in a hurting world
• Brandywine Creek Farms; they donate their harvest to feed people in need
• Paul Betlyn who fixed a military wife’s furnace for free when her husband was on deployment-Desert Vista High School, Phoenix