One young lady is rocking Loris

By Annie Rigby

Janna-Reese is a bright young fourth grader who likes to keep busy, especially now when people are staying home. She has found a way to be creative and share her talent with others by painting rocks and hiding them throughout Loris. She said, “Because of the COVID it’s really boring cause you can’t go anywhere.” While cleaning she came upon a ladybug rock that she painted two years ago inspiring her to start painting and hiding rocks again.

When someone finds a lion, tiger or bear, oh my, along with many other characters she creates and re-hide them for someone else to find. Janna-Reese says, “Re-hide them somewhere in Loris so other people can have fun finding a special rock.” She has visited the Loris Nature Park, Shorty’s Grill and has plans for other areas in town. When strolling around look in flower pots or next to a window while shopping. Her favorite place to hide her rocks is the nature park and the Loris Sports Complex look high and low and you are sure to find one.

Two years ago she created her rock paintings and remembers how much fun it was to paint the rocks and re-hide them. Janna-Reese said, “I thought it would be fun to spread the joy again.”

Janna-Reese has a nickname, “J.R.”, and doesn’t mind having friends shorten her name as long as they don’t call her just Janna. She enjoys school and said, “My favorite subjects in school are science and math.” She continued, “also lunch is my favorite time, and art class.” She spoke about art class where she is able to draw. She said the teacher has sheets of paper with pictures for the students to draw on a separate paper, and stated she sometimes uses the back of her paper to draw more.

She keeps her artwork in a binder at home and will look back on them to see the improvement she makes. In her spare time. Janna-Reese enjoys swimming or playing outside with her friends, especially her neighbor Bella who is in the same grade.

“I wanted to hide my rocks all over the place, like Myrtle Beach,” she said, “but that is pretty far away so I decided to stay here in Loris where I live.”

Trying to keep with the school colors of blue and gold she will paint decorations on her rocks to support her school; she also has painted flowers and animals like a fox, a panda bear, owls, monsters, sharks, fox, raccoons, stars, sunshine, four leaf clovers and ladybugs. A few are painted a bright color and she places a tattoo on the finished rock. She hid a couple of rocks in the dugout at the recreation department for kids to find; She painted a baseball and softball on the rocks. She said, “They are gone, someone must have found them.”

As we met for this interview a family of four visited the park. Very excitedly Janna-Reese whispered, “There are people coming, maybe they will find one of my rocks.” She watched closely as they ran to play in the area where many of her rocks are hidden.

Janna-Reese is thinking of ways to sell her rocks. She is working on the animals and wants to write positive messages and phrases on her rocks. She said, “I want to set up a lemonade stand,” she continued, “maybe I could sell my rocks, it doesn’t seem that hard.” She has ambition and a dream to purchase a white or red jeep and will begin saving to purchase it when she is able to drive.

Collecting rocks, where to go, she first thought she could go in a ditch but was fearful of snakes hidden in, around and under the rocks. She said when they go fishing again she will look for river rocks which are bigger and fun to paint.

This talented young lady is so patient with her little brother. During the interview she was able to answer my questions and respond to her brother, turn around and continue where we left off theanswering the questions. She said, “He’s strong and I call him the Little Hulk because he is very strong.”

Look around town, around trees, in flower pots and window frames to find a Loris Rocks by Janna-Reese. She wants other people to paint their own rocks to hide around town. She wants to spread the message of love and bring a smile to someone who needs a little pick-me-up. She is asking everyone to take pictures of finding the rock and re-hiding the rock and post to her Facebook page, “Loris Rocks” This way she is able to keep up with how far her messages and characters go.