Alna’s Jenny Jordan grew up poor in Massachusetts. “I’d get bread from one neighbor, I’d get peanut butter from another neighbor, and jelly from another neighbor,” she said.

At about 21, Jordan, pregnant with her second child, left a relationship and became homeless. She and her children lived half a year at a homeless shelter. She said from that experience and other times she’s been hopeless and hungry, she understands what it’s like to have nothing.

All of it has helped make her a big believer in giving back, she said.

“If I was a millionaire, I’d be broke the next day because I’d give it all away.”

Now the self-employed life skills facilitator and married mother of four has embarked on an effort to help people in need due to a different circumstance, hurricanes. Her project is catching on, drawing support from as far as Boothbay Harbor and as near to her as The Alna General Store and soon, Wiscasset Middle High School.

WMHS gifted and talented teacher Rachel Hamlin said students will have weekly times to paint rocks in February and March, and time for it in the school’s winter carnival. In addition, the community is invited to a paint night at the school from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. March 14, according to information Hamlin provided.

Last September, Jordan, wife of Alna firefighter David Jordan, picked up her mother Elaine Mann at Logan Airport in Boston after Mann fled Hurricane Irma in Florida. The next day, Jordan and a friend visited a rock garden at Moonakis Cafe in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Jordan, who had always liked to paint rocks, got an idea.

Ever since, she’s been painting rocks to draw donations to disaster relief, first about $150 for Hurricane Harvey relief to Texans via the organization Yellow Boots, and now several hundred dollars more and counting, for Hurricane Maria relief to Puerto Ricans. “It’s our duty to step up and help take care of our country,” Jordan, 40, said.

She said the funds raised have bought water filters, wipes and other supplies and aided other needs including transportation, via organizations including Home of Miracles and Embraces; Project Nasty; and American Veterans Ball.

She has been getting the rocks from Ocean Point, pulling them up with a screwdriver this winter.

She doesn’t expect to have to do that again for a while, however. Last week, Jordan called Crooker Construction. She said the business agreed to donate 500 rocks; but when a friend delivered them to her driveway, there were well more than 500 on the truck, she said, praising the business’s generosity.

“There’s no one-man show here. It takes a community,” she said about the help her effort has received – from the businesses that put the rocks and a donation jar on their counters, to Naomi Whitten, 94, of Boothbay Harbor. Jordan said Whitten has hand-made many decorative boxes for rocks Jordan mails to people who have placed orders.

Stores with the rocks include Alna General Store in Alna, Capers in Boothbay Harbor, Cohen’s Corner General Store in Edgecomb and, in Wiscasset, Maxwell’s Market and Wiscasset Quik Stop.

Alna General Store co-owner Jane Solorzano said Puerto Rico is dear to her heart; the family has friends there,  the culture is enchanting, and people are still suffering from the storm damage, she said. So she is truly happy to help and is grateful to Jordan for doing the project, Solorzano said.

Jordan paints the rocks at home, with house paint and with help from her family, including youngest son Christian Jordan, 11. “It’s fun and creative, and you can paint anything on it,” the Whitefield Elementary School sixth grader said. “And you’re helping people.” 

Jordan said the project has helped her teach her sons the importance of helping others. She is pleased to be spreading that same message to Wiscasset students through WMHS’s upcoming activities.

Jordan’s other sons are Bryan Otero Jr., 20, of Boothbay, Steven Roderick, 17, of Cape Cod, and David Jordan Jr., 13. The Jordans live on Route 218.

Donations in the jars have ranged from change to a $20 bill, Jenny Jordan said. The rocks carry patriotic and other messages and designs, from love to ladybugs, along with sports, superheroes, courage and faith. The rocks are making people smile and giving them hope, she said.

To order painted rocks, volunteer to paint rocks or donate materials, call Jordan at (774) 327-7684. Regular or paint markers would be great for writing onto  the paint, she said.