Similar to people around the world, 2020 has been a challenging year for personnel stationed at Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota.  The community – both on-base and off-base – spent six-plus weeks inside their homes during Spain’s State of Alarm and the subsequent de-escalation has been a gradual return to the “new normal."

As the de-escalation began and children were able to go out for walks, parents were posed with a challenging problem: “How do you make a child go for a walk?” Usually walks with children are a means of transportation to a destination such as the park, store, or meeting up with a friend. However, these were all off limits still so what is a parent to do? 

For one Rota parent, Lindsey Smelser, it was time to pull the box of rocks from her closet and dive into setting up a Rota Rocks community. Rota Rocks is based on the Kindness Rocks project where rocks are painted and hidden outdoors for others to find. Smelser and her children participated in one of the original groups, Whidbey Island Rocks, while stationed in Washington and they loved it.

“I wanted to start a rock group in Rota even before we got here,” she explained.  “It meant so much to my family doing it in Washington. The kids loved it so much, and it formed some of our best memories.”

At that time, her husband was deployed so the activity gave Smelser something fun to do with her kids while wearing them out.

When Smelser moved to NAVSTA Rota over two years ago with her box of rocks, she had every intention of starting a group. She floated the idea but it didn’t get much interest so the rocks sat. During the State of Alarm, the topic of a Rota Rocks group came up online and garnered community interest so with some encouragement from her friend Abigail Gross, Smelser decided to run with it.

“I started the group immediately, added everyone I knew – American and Spanish – and hid all the rocks I moved with me the next day,” she said. “I was shocked how quickly the group took off. Everyone was loving it, which made me so happy.”

The group has attracted a mix of those who have participated in similar groups before and those who are new to the concept. The one common thread is that everyone loves the joy that comes from hiding and finding rocks.

“We got involved because we do a lot of walks,” said Chief Boatswain’s Mate (BMC) Andrew Werner, stationed on USS Carney (DDG 64). “And it's a fun game to look for rocks.”

Hunting for rocks became the highlight of many of the participants’ daily one-hour walks allowed during the initial stages of Spain’s de-escalation. The children were excited to find rocks and parents were happy to have an activity to engage the children throughout the walk.

“My kids were sometimes reluctant to go for a walk or just too tired,” explained Brenda Navarro Castellet of her children’s comfort of staying home after six weeks of being unable to leave the house. “Now looking for rocks, painting them, hiding them and finding some treasures has become the highlight of their day!”

Navarro Castellet said the group has made her children happy to find rocks or to see that their rocks have been discovered on the Rota Rocks Facebook group. Her family has adopted the motto of “let’s go share some smiles today” when they head out to hide and find rocks.

Many within the group also feel that painting the rocks is as much fun as hiding them. The group has hundreds of rocks hidden on base and in the surrounding local communities of Rota and El Puerto de Santa Maria. These rocks range from whimsical gnomes and funny faces to memory rocks of active-duty members killed in action. There is no limit to the creativity of this community. 

Werner, a father to four children, said his whole family enjoys painting and hiding as much as hunting for rocks. Werner himself has taken to painting and engraving rocks for people to find.

“It makes my heart smile when I see the posts of kids when they find them,” he said. Though Werner and his family are preparing to depart Rota soon, they are hoping to take the idea of Rota Rocks to their next duty station.

Ashley Angel and her daughter have gotten into painting rocks as a way to be creative. They quickly joined the group since they had participated in a similar rock group at their last duty station.

“Painting rocks gave my daughter and I something to do during the day and also gave us something to look forward to when we went on our evening walks,” she said.

While Angel initially joined because of the fond memories of their previous experience, she said that being able to create new happy memories throughout this challenging time has been important.

Rota Rocks has bridged that gap for many – drawing from fond previous experiences but helping them to find joy in the current situation. Smelser finds the painting therapeutic especially during this challenging time of no school, limited social interactions, and a deployed husband. As restrictions continue to be lifted, she has been able to begin spending some evenings unwinding while painting rocks with friends.

“We have even started painting nights,” she said. “We all share fences so at night (and usually when I have had a really hard day), they come over and paint with me and we talk. It helps me relax and not focus on all the hard things.”

Smelser is no stranger to doing the hard, necessary things. She was a 2007 U.S. Naval Academy graduate and competed on the school’s crew team. After graduation she served as a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) for several years before getting out and entering the corporate world. She hadn’t intended on returning to Navy life.

“I knew him [her husband] prior to going into the Navy and we ran back into each other and I decided to enter back into the Navy on the other side as a spouse,” she laughed. “Way harder than I ever knew being on the other side!”

Smelser and her husband, Electronics Technician (ET) First Class Jacob Smelser of USS Porter (DDG 78), have four children together and have crisscrossed the world with duty stations. She has adapted to life on the “other side” but it can still be a struggle being the sole caregiver while her husband is deployed.

“I am home with four kids doing two [Rota] DGF school lessons and one in Spanish while my toddler was trying to see how quickly he could destroy the house,” she said. “It’s been hard.”

Smelser used to be able to socialize with and support other spouses but due to the pandemic, socialization and groups were not allowed. The Rota Rocks project allowed her and other community members to provide hope and support to each other without overstepping the regulations – in addition to motivating the children to get out for their daily walk. 

“The rock hiding and hunting was finally something we could do as a family that made us all happy,” Smelser explained while emphasizing it was something her whole family looked forward to each day. “I am so grateful for the community for embracing this and helping it take off.”

Now as the group has made its way off-base with Spanish friends of Americans stationed here joining in the group to paint, hide, or hunt for rocks, Smelser loves how it is connecting the two cultures. She also looks forward to the continued de-escalation and being able to go hunt for rocks out in town with friends from her daughter’s five años class.

“One of the greatest parts of living here has been getting to know the community and I can’t wait to do it with all my daughter’s friends and their families,” she said.

The anticipation of finding a rock has given many within the Rota community a reason to get outside and hunt, or hide, for rocks. Ultimately, Smelser loves that the group has created a common bond – that goes beyond ranks, commands, and cultures – of hiding a rock just to put a smile on someone’s face.

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