Simple paper snowflakes are being used to send a powerful message of support and love to Sandy Hook Elementary School and the community of Newtown, Conn., where on Dec. 14 a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers.

The goal of what’s been dubbed the “Snowflakes for Sandy Hook” project is to create a winter wonderland in the former middle school where students and staff from Sandy Hook will return to class after the Christmas break, according to the Connecticut Parent Teacher Student Association, which is spearheading the project.

The snowflakes project got started a few days before Christmas and already the Connecticut PTSA has received boxes and boxes of paper snowflakes from organizations across the state. Now, the project has gone global, with people all around the United States and the world also taking part.

In Maine, it’s the libraries that have answered the call to provide snowflakes to the Sandy Hook community, including those in Windham, Westbrook, Gorham, Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach.

Anne Davis, director at the Gardiner Public Library, is the person who, after hearing about the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook project, she spread the word by using the Maine Library Association’s listserv.

Davis said she learned about it from Jamie Dacyczyn, who works at the Gardiner Police Department. According to Davis, Dacyczyn is “a master at creating beautiful snowflakes with paper and scissors.”

“She decorates all of the municipal buildings (in Gardiner) with these gorgeous works of art,” Davis said. “She wanted to have (a snowflake) workshop and realized that a partnership with (the library) was perfect.”

Davis said with a little help from a post on the library’s Facebook page and the local newspaper, more than 50 people showed up to take part in the workshop and create snowflakes to send to Sandy Hook Elementary.

She wanted libraries across Maine, to get involved with the snowflake project because “public libraries, just like our public schools, should be places of safety and learning for our children. What happened in Newtown frightened me because it is ‘Anywhere, USA’ and this could have been our kids, our teachers, our friends. We needed to create a conduit for our community to help heal our broken hearts.”

She’s thrilled that other libraries in Maine have jumped on board and are taking part in the snowflake effort.

“I am more pleased than I can ever tell you,” Davis said. “We needed to do something. We needed to show Newtown that there is still a sense of innocence and wonder for most children.”

She said the snowflake project is important because it’s a healing activity and it also gives people who want to help or show support for the Sandy Hook community something positive and constructive to do.

Davis’ sister works in a primary school in Granby, Conn., which may be one reason the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary hit so close to home for her. But she also said, “these small victims are our nation’s kids and we all feel the sorrow.”

James Martinez, spokesman for the National PTA, which is handling all media requests regarding the Sandy Hook tragedy on behalf of the Connecticut PTSA, said that the snowflake project is “definitely designed for people nationwide and around the world to take part in.”

He said the Connecticut association is prepared to accept a deluge of paper snowflakes on behalf of the Sandy Hook community and said it would be great if the parent-teacher group could receive “as many snowflakes as possible. This is one way people can show support and do something to make a difference.”

Martinez said the Connecticut PTSA has already received numerous boxes of snowflakes, but since the former middle school where the Sandy Hook children will be sent is furnished but not decorated, he said lots of snowflakes would be needed in order to decorate the entire school.

“This project is important and significant on so many levels,” Martinez said.

That’s why so many libraries in southern Maine are taking part, and are hoping their patrons will also embrace the idea.

At the Windham Public Library, Sally Bannen, the adult services librarian, liked the snowflake idea so much she immediately put out a display with paper, pens and scissors for patrons to make their own paper snowflakes.

She said the project was also something families could do at home over the holiday break. The Windham library is collecting the snowflakes until Jan. 7.

“I imagine they’re going to be inundated with snowflakes,” Bannen said of the Sandy Hook community. “(I’m just) hoping folks coming into the library might take a moment and think of the families and what they’re going through and maybe make a snowflake, which will also make them feel like they’re somehow contributing. I know there’s nothing we can do to fix it, but this is a way to show our support.”

Brooke Faulkner, the young adult librarian at McArthur Library in Biddeford, agreed. She said the reason she brought the snowflake project to the attention of local teens is because “most of us are wracking our brains about what we could possibly do to help out.”

She also said the snowflake project was a great way to “open up the topic of the shooting. Kids are certainly talking about it. A lot of our teens are showing their feelings. They just can’t believe what happened and they can’t understand it.”

While Faulkner and those touting the snowflake project know its not a cure-all, they also say it’s a positive thing to do in the face of such horror.

Laura Vickery, the children’s librarian at the Dyer Library in Saco, planned on putting out paper snowflake supplies the day after Christmas.

“I think this is a good way for people to reach out so those in Connecticut know just how many of us are thinking of them,” Vickery said.

She also said that the snowflakes are great because each one is unique, just like the children who were killed.

At the Libby Library in Old Orchard Beach, director Lee Koenigs said the snowflake project is “absolutely something we want to do. Despite everything, we are really trying to stay in the holiday mood here.”

Corinne Sachs, the youth librarian, at Walker Memorial Library in Westbrook, said she would push the snowflakes project on Dec. 22, a busy day for the library as families come in looking for books and videos for the Christmas break.

She said what’s great about the snowflakes is that the library serves so many children that are the same age as those killed in Connecticut and this is something they “can understand and connect with. It’s definitely a meaningful way for them to spend their time.”

At Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham youth librarian Kathy Stevens plans to put out supplies in order for patrons to make snowflakes if they wished.

Examples of paper snowflakes made at the Windham Public Library for the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook project. Many other libraries across Maine have also jumped on board and plan to make and send snowflakes to the Sandy Hook Elementary School community in Connecticut.