Howell High School has recently begun hiding colorful rocks painted by students throughout the 10-12 building and freshman campus to brighten a finder’s day.

“We made a physical representation of something to inspire joy, to make someone smile, and to show Howell’s School spirit,” math teacher Mrs. Kelly Yoder says.

Starting with a simple project during Mrs. Yoder’s geometry and algebra 2 classes, students paint a bland rock with fun colors and patterns to conceal in plain sight. Finders have the ability to keep the rock, add to the collection of rocks already painted, or re-hide for another person to find.

“I felt very excited that I had found a rock and I felt happy because it had a smiley face on it,” sophomore Riley Vargo says.

Mrs. Yoder and her students hope to have more students and staff participate in adding to the collection of rocks. Students and staff can add to the collection of growing rocks by painting rocks themselves to bring in or re-hiding rocks if found. If a rock is found, it is encouraged to post a picture to the twitter @HHSRocks1200.

“1,200 rocks is our goal, to have 1,200 rocks hidden because then we figure 1,200 people have hopefully had a smile,” Mrs. Yoder says.

Students should continue to find rocks throughout the school during the course of this year. Mrs. Yoder and her students hope that people continue to add to the collection and keep this fun tradition going in upcoming years.

“I hope more people find them, there’s more scattered around the school and I hope people keep rehiding them and replacing them and post it on the twitter,” junior Kallan Packard says.