“They Are Children” found its genesis among the many people across California and the rest of the U.S. who wanted to sending something to the kids “besides anger, shouting and politics,” according to Daniel Zingale, senior vice president of the California Endowment.

“The idea came from people we work with in the community that said, ‘I want to send a message not like what I see on television – that’s not angry or political,’” Zingale said.

For Zingale and his co-workers at the endowment, there was a “silent majority” of sorts, whose opinions and messages had been drowned out by the vitriol surrounding the political debate about immigration.