Tom Ballard of Take Heart Creative Studio. Photo: Ashley Brown

PARK CITY, Utah. — Tom Ballard’s mission is to spread love and hope. With heart-shaped stones, he creates tangible expressions of his motto: take heart, you matter, you are important, you are beautiful. His business, Take Heart Creative Studio, focuses on suicide prevention and spreading love with his heart tokens, kind gestures, and inspirational speaking.

Tom started creating heart rocks when he was a teacher, during a tragic year when five of his student’s parents committed suicide. First, he made tokens of hope for the whole school. Then he started making heart rocks and spreading his message to other schools. When life brought him home to Utah, he decided to focus on his vision, so he launched Take Heart Creative Studio to share his art and dream.

Tom made over 8,000 heart rocks summer of 2021. He attributes selling heart rocks at the Park City Farmer’s Market as one reason he has succeeded in filling Utah with heart rocks. Take Heart Creative Studio sells tokens of hope, and Tom’s vision of giving others hope is growing. This month Tom gave an inspirational talk at a public school in Utah.