By Dan Russo | Catholic News Service

DUBUQUE, Iowa -- On Dec. 14, 2012, the day a lone gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Kylie DeWees was badly shaken by the news.

Although the young woman, then a junior at Xavier Catholic High School in Cedar Rapids, had never played piano before, something compelled her to sit down at the piano her family had inherited just two days earlier from her late grandmother.

As soon as her fingers touched the keys, she instantly began to compose melodies as if she had been taking lessons for years.

"My mom came down that day when I started playing and said, 'Turn down the radio, Kylie!' and I was like, 'It's not the radio,' and she started crying. I knew I wanted to do something for Sandy Hook because I feel like it was God and Sandy Hook that made this all possible."

Kylie immediately began to create instrumental songs with the intention of somehow using music to help the families of Sandy Hook. Although she couldn't read or write music, the compositions came into her mind and she memorized them.

"I don't know exactly how I do it," said Kylie, now a first-year student at Loras College, a Catholic school in Dubuque. "I think in patterns and rhythms. I could almost see a song and whatever emotion I was feeling I could develop it into something without words."

After the initial discovery of Kylie's hidden talent, her mother, Lisa DeWees, was thinking about what her daughter could do for Sandy Hook when she accidentally knocked two books off a shelf.

"One of them was 'The Christmas Box' and I had not opened that up when I first received it," Lisa told The Witness, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

The book is a 1993 novel about a woman who mourns the loss of her child at the base of an angel statue. The angel has the word "hope" on one of its wings. Parents who had lost a child in Salt Lake City asked for a monument matching the description of the angel in the book. Author Richard Paul Evans paid for the project.

The statues began to spread. There are over 120 in cities worldwide. In the 1990s, when Kylie was very young, Evans signed a book for her mother while he attended the dedication ceremony for an Angel of Hope statue in Iowa City.

Lisa had been involved in raising money for that statue after someone she worked with was in a car accident in which a young girl died. The author signed Lisa's book, but she had not thought to read the inscription until it fell off the shelf in 2012.

"(Evans) had signed the book and it said, 'To Kylie -- use your God given talents,'" said Lisa. "I came upstairs and told Kylie, 'I totally think that this is a God moment.'"

Kylie decided she wanted to create an album of her piano music, sell it and then use the proceeds to erect an Angel of Hope statue for the Sandy Hook community.

"A friend of mine was out in the Sandy Hook area," said Lisa. "She met with the chief of police. They were already putting a statue in, so that's why we put in a statue at Xavier (in Cedar Rapids)."

Kylie's first album, "Believe," was sold on the Internet and at various events. The pianist also organized other fundraisers. With the help of family, friends and businesses in the Cedar Rapids area, she sold over 500 albums and raised $19,000 for a statue at her high school.

Word spread of her musical talent and dedication to the Sandy Hook victims. She was invited to play at the first anniversary memorial for the Sandy Hook victims in Newtown.

At that event, the town dedicated its own Angel of Hope statue. DeWees played piano as the victims' families and others arrived at St. Rose Catholic Church in Newtown.

"When I was playing, the parents of one of the children came in and there were 26 roses on the altar," remembered Kylie. "They put a picture of (their daughter) and some seashells because they would go to Hawaii a lot."

During her time in Newtown, DeWees met Evans. The Cedar Rapids Angel of Hope statue was blessed at an all-school Mass at Xavier High School last April. Placed in the Xavier gym in July, the statue is the 124th in the world.

"I hope it's a place that people can go for hope and healing," said Kylie. "I know a lot of people walk by it every day and so even if some days they don't notice it. Even if there's one day they do and it helps them through the day, it'll be worth it."

DeWees released her second album, "Leap of Faith," earlier this month. The proceeds from her music will go toward other charitable efforts. Her music is available at www.apple.com/itunes and www.cdbaby.com.

 Russo is a staff writer at The Witness, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.