Visiting grandkids create snake made of rocks for Panora Library

Jul 30, 2024 | News

Cousins Sydney Mcllhon, Jetson Keller and Dashel Keller gather around their grandparents’ table to paint rocks for a project they hope Panora area children will finish.

By Susan Thompson | Special to the Times Vedette

Three cousins visiting their grandparents in early July started a creative project for the Panora Library with the hope other children will add to what they started.

Jetson Keller, Sydney Mcllhon and Dashel Keller pose with their snake made of painted rocks they helped install near the Panora Library.

Mike and Joan Trebon live in a Boulder Cove townhome at Lake Panorama. Each year, two grandsons who live in Greenwood, Indiana, travel to Iowa to visit them the week before the Fourth of July. Joining the boys for this time with their grandparents is their cousin, Sydney, who lives in Urbandale.  

“We saw this idea at a park in Indiana when I was visiting the boys earlier this year,” Joan Trebon says. “I thought it would be fun for them to initiate the project when they came to Iowa over the Fourth of July.”

The project was a snake made of painted rocks. Trebon talked with Kim Finnegan, director of the Panora Library, to see if she would be interested in her grandkids painting some rocks to get a snake started that then could be added to by children in the Panora community.

“It was placed outside the library along the sidewalk so everyone can enjoy it,” Finnegan says. “We will have a craft day sometime in the future and paint more rocks to add to the snake. But anyone can stop into the library whenever they want and paint a rock to add. It doesn’t have to be a craft day.”

Trebon says her grandchildren chose from small rocks from a rock garden at the Trebon home to paint.

Brothers Jetson and Dashel Keller show off some of the rocks they painted to create Rocco the Snake at the Panora Library.

“We had to search a while for a good rock for the head of the snake,” she says. “I purchased acrylic paints for us to use and then shared the paint with the library for other children to use. The cousins had fun coming up with different designs.”

Jetsen Keller is 7 years old, and his brother Dashel Keller is 5 years old. Sydney Mcllhon is 12 years old. Trebon says she and the cousins hope Sydney’s 2-year-old sister, Collins, will be able to join the fun next year.