AGAWAM – An Agawam Rocks Kindness Garden will be built sometime in the spring inside the city’s School Street Park.

This project is an extension of the “Agawam Rock Club,” which is a small collective that “paints rocks for all to enjoy and hide around town.” The club was formulated last February by local resident Jen Baginski, who wanted to find way to honor her late brother who passed away in December of 2019.

“I was looking to do a memorial garden for my brother since he is the reason that I started this [rocks] project,” said Baginski. “It’s going to be a beautiful, relaxing garden with positive, beautiful rocks.”

Baginski has been working with the Agawam Park and Recreation Department to formulate a concrete plan for when and where the garden would be placed. While there is no set start date for construction, the town and the club may begin working on it in March or April, depending on when the snow melts.

“We’re going to have rocks that people can take home, paint, and then bring back to be put into the garden,” said Baginski. “There’s a real cute place in School Street for it.”

Once the town builds the actual garden, Baginski said that she will ask some of the children who have been a part of the club since the beginning to help with implementing a giant rock in the middle of the garden. One of the children will be painting that rock while other children help her create a bunch of stepping stones.

Out of all the parks, Baginski felt that School Street Park was the perfect place to create this garden because of how active it is.

“It’s always busy there,” she said.

The garden will be a continuation of Baginski’s motive to spread kindness in any way she can throughout the community. She said she is thankful for all of the donations she has received over the past months, and said that the club is almost at their goal of $1,500, which will go toward the construction of the garden.

“The people who have donated are so amazing,” said Baginski. “I want to make this garden a place where people can just relax.”

The rock treasure hunts will be going until April, according to Baginski. Interested parties can visit the Agawam Rocks Facebook page for more information on those at https://www.facebook.com/Probaggy/. The Agawam Rocks Club have also painted rocks with the senior center and Sunshine Village. Baginski plans on partnering with the library in 2021 to work on their summer reading program, and if the world opens back up in the summer, she also wants to participate in craft fairs during the month of August.

“We’ve really had a lot of fun as a group,” said Baginski. “I can’t wait for the future, especially since we’ll be able to do activities again.”