Shelley Magan's right. Sometimes, there are no words.
And that's why the design she dreamed up to memorialize the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre is so potent.
It doesn't say "Rest In Peace" or "We Remember."
It doesn't say anything.
It simply depicts 20 tiny hands and six apples: potent, heart-tugging symbols of the 20 children and six educators who died at the hands of a mad gunman.
Magan is a Lehigh Valley native who lives in Ocean City, N.J., and is principal of an elementary school in another shore community. She enlisted the help of graphic designer Ken Brown — the father of one of her students — to bring her vision to life.
Then she had 1,000 car magnets and 1,000 lapel pins made and began selling them online and at stores in various shore towns, intending to give 100 percent of the proceeds to Sandy Hook Elementary.
"Initially my efforts were for the school," Magan told me in a phone interview the other day. "A school district can never really prepare for such a tragedy. I wanted to do what I could to help the school get additional counseling, money toward a memorial, something to help with the healing process."
Magan said the potent symbols of hands and apples have brought people to tears when they realize what they represent. The wordless design "says what it needs to say when you look at it," she said.
Like so many worthy projects, this one grew beyond the initial idea into something else. A couple of weeks ago, Magan heard from an attorney in Newtown, Robert Accomando, who launched the My Sandy Hook Family Fund.
The group has raised more than $1.3 million for victims' families so far. Accomando, whose sons wrestled on the same team as one of the young victims, had seen Magan's image online and asked if he could use it to help with fundraising.
"When I found out he was getting money directly into the hands of the families, I wanted to do that," she said. "I told Rob that my only stipulation is that all the money go to the people in need."
Magan said she will take the money she has collected so far — about $3,300 — and give it to Sandy Hook Elementary as promised. She plans to drive to Newtown over spring break with her fiance, Lehigh County Chief of Prosecutions Stephen Van Natten, and present a check to the district's superintendent.
Future sales, however, will go to the family fund. The group's goal is to raise enough to give $100,000 each to the Sandy Hook families.
Magan, I should note, has no personal attachment to Sandy Hook. She reacted to the shooting the way the rest of us did — with horror, revulsion, anger — and decided to channel those emotions into something that might, to whatever degree, help with healing.
"You just need to be a compassionate person," she said. "I just want to do something to help these people."
Magan has expanded her range of merchandise to include lanyards. They can be found online at http://www.sandyhookpins.com.
She also launched a Facebook campaign to post photos of the image — pin, magnet or lanyard — all over the country.
So far, her wordless cry from the heart has reached 16 states.
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