Nickel Things

March Relief Society Activity: ShamROCK and ROLL

About the beginning of March 2024, in our family ward (church congregation), my mom was called to (asked to serve as) Relief Society Activity Coordinator & Teacher. Excited and eager, my mom jumped right into putting on her first Relief Society (for women 18+) activity for March… ShamROCK & ROLL! There’s a lot of play on words and meanings in that title, but essentially, the Relief Society ladies got together to paint kindness rocks for themselves, their ministering sisters, friends, or for anyone they wanted to gift their rock to in order to brighten their day and spread kindness, while having plenty of time to socialize with each other, and enjoy some refreshments! Here’s how it happened…

Event Flyer

First we got the news out with some Canva created flyers (printed and physically passed out to the ladies in the ward, and the digital image was also added to the ward program, Relief Society Newsletter, email reminders, and more).

If you’d like to create your own copy of the invite above, below is a template link–you will need to sign into Canva (creating an account is free, or if you’re an educator you can even get a premium account for free), then you’ll be able to make your own copy of the template provided to edit for your event.

Materials Needed

In preparation for mom’s ShamROCK and ROLL event, planning on between 30-50 ladies attending and participating from our ward, she secured and prepared the following:

• Space for the activity (reserved ward cultural hall)
• 6 round tables & 6 chairs per table (having only 6 at a table allowed for elbow room while guests painted, but also the flexibility to add more chairs if needed)
• 1 long table (for refreshments)
• Dollar Tree tablecloths (not only should EVERY table ALWAYS have some type of tablecloth for classiness, but it also protects the tables from paint–we did green to stick with the March shamrock theme)
• Table centerpieces (we grabbed some simple but cute shamrock centerpieces from Michael’s and leprechaun shoe centerpieces from Joann’s just to liven up the tables)
• Small plates (not only for refreshments but also enough for participants to paint their rock on)
• Rocks (we ordered this 80 pack from Amazon so we had enough for participants to paint at least two kindness rocks if they wanted too, plus these rocks ended up being a great flat size making them ideal for easy painting)
• White acrylic paint (I’ll explain more below, but before the event, we washed and primed all the rocks with white paint so our participants’ painted designs would show up brighter and clearer)
• Foam brushes (part of the optional prep in order to prime the rocks with white paint before the event)
• Various acrylic paint colors (to provide participants with lots of options to paint with)
• Various paintbrushes (to provide participants with lots of options to paint with)
• Crystal clear acrylic coating (for participants to spray their finished kindness rocks in order to seal them just for extra measure–definitely do outside as some types, like this coating, can smell!)
• Small cups (to hold water for participants to clean their paintbrushes)
• Paper towels (for participants to clean and wipe their paintbrushes on)
• Refreshments (because what’s a church event without refreshments? to stick with the March ShamROCK & ROLL theme, we got M&M’s Mint Ice Cream Sandwiches from Dollar Tree and Cheryl’s Cookies–Buttercream Frosted Good Luck Cut-out Cookies, because not only are both of those treats green, but they’re also delicious!)
• Rock themed playlist for background music (though some may find this unnecessary, I find having soft, appropriate for the event background music, helps conversation and socializing flow…plus our event was literally called ShamROCK & ROLL…we needed some good rock music present somehow, so linked is the YouTube music playlist I curated for the night)
• Pens/pencils (for participants to fill out kindness cards)
• Kindness Cards (little kindness or rock themed pun cards created on Canva then printed out and spread out on the tables for participants to write on and give to others with their kindness rock–if you click on the link, you’ll once again be directed to a Canva template link you can copy and edit to make your own or just print out as is!)

You may not need all the materials above for your event, but just sharing what we used!

Rock Preparation

As I hinted at in our materials list, before our ShamROCK & ROLL event, we did some preparation on our participants’ rocks, so our participants on the night of the event could just sit down and paint, and immediately have brighter designs!

Once our rocks arrived from Amazon, we washed and dried all the rocks (thank goodness for farmhouse sinks), then we used the foam brushes and white acrylic paint to prime each rock with not one, but two layers of white paint. Though this did take a little bit of extra work and time on our part, it really helped ensure participants’ painted designs showed up bright and clear on their rocks, and since rocks are porous, participants didn’t have to keep going over their rock design multiple times, thanks to the white painted base layers we had applied ahead of time. Though some may consider this prep overkill, from our experience, it really helped our event go smoothly!

Time to ShamROCK & ROLL

Before we knew it, it was the night of our ShamROCK & ROLL!

Participants (many so wonderfully on theme and dressed in green!) chose their rock(s), painted various designs (lots of flowers, animals, words of encouragement, and more), filled out kindness cards, socialized with those at their table and around the room, enjoyed refreshments, and either exchanged kindness rocks and cards at the event or took them home to gift to others later. Overall, I’d say the event rocked!