A new Timmins snake is growing in popularity along the beach at Gillies Lake.
Last month, Chrissy Boyd and Anita Tasanko started a rock snake near the Gillies Lake beach. With a little help from the community, today the painted rocks wind along the walking path.
Taking part is simple: paint a rock and add it to the end of the snake to see how long it can get.
Boyd and Tasanko work for the Cochrane Temiskaming Resource Centre supporting adults with special needs in group homes and day programs.
Before the pandemic, they said the day program offered volunteer work, physical activities, music programs, social events and gatherings.
"When the pandemic hit, in-person programming came to a halt. As such, we moved our programming to Zoom," they said.
Constantly brainstorming new ideas, they were sent a video of the rock snake in Toronto.
"We thought it was a great activity for the individuals we support and an amazing opportunity to bring some smiles to the community especially during a time when many of us are struggling with the challenges of this pandemic," they said.
Local group homes received rocks and paint and were encouraged to get creative to make rock art.
"Once completed, we asked them to add their rocks to the rock snake at Gillies Lake. We then posted on Facebook and asked people to add rocks of their own to the rock snake and it became an instant success. The original post had 200 shares and 100 comments. The rock snake started with a mere four rocks that Anita painted in order to 1) Start the snake and set its location and 2) To politely ask others to contribute to the snake and not remove any rocks. All in all, the rock snake has been a huge success with at least 150 rocks there already and it is growing every day," they said.
"We have received so many positive comments and we are so happy to see the community as a whole participating by adding rocks of their own. It is amazing how a simple idea can spark such joy in people from all walks of life. We and the individuals we support are so happy to be a part of such an uplifting and fun community activity."
Have you painted a rock to add to the snake? Send photos of your work (at the rock or while it's being made) to [email protected].
