Wall-to-wall kindness
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Debby Carlson of Post Falls, right, son Aidan, 12, and Winn Koehler (with baby) scope out some of their favorite rocks Friday at the new Kootenai County Kindness Wall in White Pine Park in Post Falls. The wall was arranged by Koehler and other organizers of the new rock painting/hiding group, KC Rocks, for little kids and those with disabilities who cannot easily go out and hunt for cleverly hidden rocks.
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Debby Carlson of Post Falls and son Aidan, 12, scope out some of their favorite rocks Friday at the new Kootenai County Kindness Wall in White Pine Park in Post Falls. The wall was arranged by organizers of the new rock painting/hiding group, KC Rocks, for little kids and those with disabilities who cannot easily go out and hunt for cleverly hidden rocks.
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press Chloe Vogtsberger, 4, holds up a painted rock Friday near the new Kootenai County Kindness Wall in White Pine Park in Post Falls.
DEVIN HEILMAN/Press The new Kootenai County Kindness Wall in White Pine Park in Post Falls is a location where people of all ages and abilities can take or leave a painted rock. Winn Koehler, a Post Falls mom, arranged the area on an old retaining wall that used to house plants and a flagpole. She created the area to make hiding/finding painted rocks easier for small children and disabled individuals.
POST FALLS — A lonely, dirt-filled, circular retaining wall in White Pine Park won't be lonely anymore.
It is now the home of the Kootenai County Kindness Wall, courtesy of the new painting-hiding-finding rock group, KC Rocks.
“Everybody has a right to have a smile and a reason for joy,” said Post Falls mom Winn Koehler, who arranged the new wall last week. “Everybody should be able to feel a little bit of kindness every day in their life.”
Koehler originally organized a rock-trading kindness wall in Falls Park where little children and disabled individuals could easily access the cache of decorated rocks and participate in the rock painting/trading community, but it was destroyed.
"This is for little kids and the disabled that actually can’t go out and rock hunt,” Koehler said about a month ago. "There’s a gal who comes to Falls Park who is in a wheelchair, and she can’t actively go out and find the rocks, but she could pull right up to my wall and get a rock, trade them out. The little guys have a hard time finding them and they get discouraged when they don’t. I figured this is a good thing for them.”
For a week she enjoyed bringing her own wee ones to sit on a nearby bench and witness the magic.
"The excitement and squeals I heard from the little kids when they come up and see all these beautiful rocks was amazing," she said back then. "The joy you could hear in their voices was amazing. It was the greatest feeling ever. It made me emotional. You’d see the big smiles on their face. It was well worth it."
Unfortunately, the Falls Park wall was destroyed by unknown persons who threw the painted rocks into the Spokane River. Koehler's friend, Debby Carlson, who also assisted with the White Pine kindness wall, said the destruction of the Falls wall was "heartbreaking."
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, after all the work she’s done for this,’” Carlson said, gesturing to the White Pine wall. "We don't want to see this one destroyed."
A friend of Koehler's donated a heavy rock slab to mark the new wall. It tells the three steps necessary to be a part of the KC Rocks community: Take one rock so you have a bit of kindness, leave one to spread the kindness and share one so the kindness wall can grow.
For info and photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/353956238371586/ or visit the KC Kindness Wall KC Rocks Facebook page.