A 21-year-old computer science student from Hantsport, N.S. is bringing a lot of attention to a shore lined area of Point Pleasant Park.
“To me, I just love sharing the love and this is a great kind of outlet to do that,” said Curtis Bureaux.
Like many visitors to the park, Bureaux enjoys running through the over 30 kilometers of trails.
“It lets me clear my brain and nothing else exists when I’m out running here,” said Bureaux.
He breaks up each run with a stop at a bench near the water.
“I touch the bench, maybe hang out here for a song or two and then head back to campus,” said Bureaux.
During one of those stops he noticed a big pile of rocks.
That’s when an idea was sparked in his mind.
“In the past I’ve made hearts with rocks before and I thought ‘why not do it here in Point Pleasant?'” said Bureaux.
He started building hearts out of rocks and even left a message, inviting others to do the same.
“I wrote ‘Make a heart’, the actual words out of rocks and from there it’s just blown up and people are now making hearts all the time,” said Bureaux.
He shared his rock garden on social media and a popular Halifax Instagram account shared it.
“Halifax Noise picked it up and they have like 23 thousand followers and it got maybe two thousand views the first day,” said Bureaux.
The online community connects users with all things Halifax.
“Halifax Noise is predominately an Instagram account right now and it’s pretty much an amplifier for everything going on in the city,” said Kate Ross, the creator of Halifax Noise.
She shared his post through her account and the online reaction was instantaneous.
“It just came up in my feed and I thought it was really cool and I thought everyone should get out and get involved. Then a ton of people were like ‘we have to go make a heart’,” said Ross.
Now, the valley born student has over 30 rock shaped hearts in his garden.