“Yarnbombing” and one woman’s journey to help disabled community through shared experience

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Resource Exchange (TRE) gathered volunteers to knit 22,000 yards of yarn (equal to about 13 Manitou inclines) to decorate 60 structures outside its office to mark 60 years of helping disabled community members toward independence.

"This is a metaphor for all of the threads that come together to make TRE work," said TRE Director of Development Kelly Lyng.

Emerald Doyle volunteered hundreds of hours to help her mom, yarn bombing lead planner Cass Daley, knit the patterns. She's a former client of TRE, living with her own intellectual disability. She's now its newest board member.

We adopted her in China. She came here when she was 10 or 11 years old, and she's had to learn everything. Going to school, riding a bike, learning English," Daley said.

Just over a decade later, Doyle has overcome both her disability and the challenges of the stark cultural adjustment. She's trilingual. She works for the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind with her American Sign Language certification in addition to fluency in English and Chinese. She got a degree from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and can now apply her education and experience in her new position on the TRE board.

"When I came here to the US, I was very nervous," Doyle said. "It's just like, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know what to do,' and just learning English, it's a lot of challenges. Now it's like, 'what a big accomplish that I have been accomplished!"

"She's just an amazing young lady, and we're really proud of her and can't say enough about her," Daley said, with a tear in her eye.

In her new position, Doyle said she wants to be an example for others facing her similar challenges.

"The word that I really like is called strength. Strength indicates it doesn't matter if you have a disability or not," Doyle said "Don't let any obstacle stop you. You can do anything in your life. Don't let anybody tell you what you can and can't do."

Doyle and Cass will help TRE repurpose the yarn as clothing for homeless veterans when they take the installation down. TRE also has art for sale from both clients and professional artists (without advertising who's is who) with 60% of the proceeds going to TRE, and the other 40% to the artist.