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flsabella and Soledad Meade reallyty' know what it means to rock. ln fact,they do it every day after they finish
their homework! Even though they're onlyin elementary school the sisters from Milford,Connecticut, are already the owners of RockOn, a painted rock business that they acciden-tally started back in May 2010. Accidentally?Well, kind of. The whole thing began as a giftfor their mom.
"On Mother's Day I decided to make mymom a garden because she likes plants, and I
thought it needed colo;" says lsabella, 10. "SoI painted some rocks." Soledad, 8, noticed thather sister could use some creative help, so shebegan arranging the rocks around the gardento make it look even more beautiful.
' When they showed the garden to theirmom, she was overwhelmed. "lt was a sur-
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prise, and we yelled 'Happy Mother's Day!"' { :
Soledad says. "My mom kept saying, 'Thank ,{you so much,'and gave us lots of hugs." H
Their dad was also impressed with the girls' ilwork. "Our dad said we should start our own
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Ever the proud papa, Mr. Meade put thepictures of the rocks on his Facebook page.People began to take notice, posting mes-sages asking how much they cost. Then theybegan ordering rocks. The family couldn'tbelieve it!
,But earning mone)/ for themselves wasn'tenough. The girls wanted to use the rocks tobenefit others. "l'm a helper person," says
lsabella. "l have all these ideas in my mindthat are too big for me, but I am always think-ing about how I can help people."
Every year the family donates to a home-less shelteri but the girls wanted to do evenmore. 5o they decided to hold a rock-paintingcontest as a fundraiser for Get ln Touchi anon-profit breast cancer awareness organiza-tion started by a family friend. People paid$5 to enter their painted rocks in the contest.Others made generous donations. When itwas ovel the sisters had raised $ZSOI The giv-
t ,ing;exp,erribhce felt so good, they decided they' wQuld donate a portion of all of Rock On's l
. profits to Get ln Touch.
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With the help of their family, the two setup a workstation over their garage. Rocks andpaint take up two huge tables, one for paint-ing and the other for drying. "We do it one ata time," says Soledad. "l do the backgroundand when it dries, Bella does the design."
Lately they've been thinking about paintingother things, too. "My dad found these chairsour neighbor was throwing out," says lsa-bella. Mr. Meade brought them home for thegirls to paint. They weren't up on Facebookmore then a few days when they, sold.
"l'm getting better as an artist, and ljustwant to grow with our business," says Soledad,who plans to be a full-time artist when she getsolder;''tHopefullyWe can continue to make,money for college."
"And help the community," lsabella adds. @
