15/10/2026
Before heading to the post office to mail these beautiful rocks, we wanted to share them with you in hopes they give you a smile. Because the amazing students who painted them surely brightened our week!
Team hosted a mini service project workshop for teenage boys who had survived some very trying circumstances.
🎨 The activity was simple: painting rocks. But the purpose was powerful.
Students had two options for their painted rocks:
1. Leave the painted rocks around the campus of their residential school.
2. Mail the rocks to a brave 6-year-old girl named Maddie who is battling cancer.
📕 Backstory: Maddie lives in Kansas and has already received more than 200 rocks from neighbors and people around the country for Maddie’s Rock Garden. Maddie gets so much joy from adding these precious stones to her collection.)
🫶Every student chose to give their rock to Maddie. If they had additional time, some painted a rock for their school, too.
🖼️ Their only instruction was to paint something they thought would lift Maddie up. We were blown away by their cheerful artwork and the moving messages they came up with.
📦 We asked the students how they thought Maddie would feel when she opened the mailbox and saw the box filled with special rocks painted just for her.
💚One young man said the rocks would give Maddie HOPE.
Wow. HOPE is one of the most powerful things any of us can give and receive.
While the students painted these rocks designed to make a difference…
✨ We have HOPE that these young men, who have already endured so much, would know just how special and capable they are because they were giving that gift of HOPE to a little girl they had never met.
To be continued: Team GPP is SO excited for to formally bring our programs to this residential school in 2027.
We can’t wait to see what these superhero students help create for their youth-led service project!
💥 Thank you for reminding us - There’s a SUPERHERO in all of us!
