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It's another day at the sewing machine for Jillian Waite, stitching together her life one handbag at a time. "My journey was kind of a long one," she says. "I knew I needed help for a long time, but I couldn't help myself." That journey is her road to recovery from substance abuse, a shared experience for most of the women at Unshattered in Wappingers Falls. However, the shop was started by one person who had the opposite experience. "I used to be the person who thought people that struggled with addiction just needed to get their act together, be more responsible [and] get a job," says Kelly Lyndgaard, the founder and CEO of Unshattered. Lyndgaard's opinion on substance abuse remained firm until she heard one woman share her journey to recovery, one that started when she was 8 years old. It was then that Lyndgaard knew she needed to make a difference in these women's lives. "That evening really changed my life," she says. "I learned that addiction is actually a story of pain, not a story of substance abuse." Lyndgaard soon got involved with a local recovery program and fell in love with witnessing women on the journey of recovery. However, there was one aspect on those journeys that she believed was missing. "I was seeing this problem [where], after people go through a residential recovery program...they may have not had the chance to get job skills," she says. "They may have not had the chance to get an education. Most importantly, they didn't have a safe community to go back to." Thus,
Unshattered was born - Lyndgaard's custom handbag company helping women in recovery programs. Just like the women who make them, each bag gets a second chance at life. "Our products are a reflection of the lives of the women who make them," Lyndgaard says. "They are handbags that are made of all upcycled materials…Something discarded without purpose, headed to a landfill [and] remade into something of beauty, purpose, and meaning. That's the work we're trying to do with our team: to help unmask the skills that addiction was hiding, find the places of brokenness that need healing in a safe community and help them put back the pieces of their lives so they can thrive on the other side of addiction." Upcycled materials Unshattered uses to make their bags include the Cadet uniforms from West Point and the leather seats from Southwest Airlines planes. No matter the material of each bag, they all have three "secret" things in common. The first is the names of bags, who are all named in honor of someone still struggling with addiction. "As we cut the kit, sew the bag and get it ready to ship, we're praying and thinking about that person, [hoping] they find healing," says Lyndgaard. "[We let] our customer know that they're carrying that in honor of somebody who is still on the journey." The second secret is a secret message in the liner from the woman who made the bag. "[It could] maybe be her number of days of sobriety, a song lyric [or] a verse," said Lyndgaard. "It's something meaningful to her." The final secret is the gold thread that is sewn into every bag - Unshattered's nod to the Japanese art form of kintsugi. "When a piece of pottery was broken, they would use gold in the cracks to put it back together," Lyndgaard explains. "It was so beautiful that it became a form of art, and that term means 'more beautiful for having been broken.' So, we really celebrate those places in our life where brokenness has happened." As the women continue to invest in their lives through their handbags, Lyndgaard continues to invest in their personal and professional development. "They have weekly workshops; they have a mentor; we will pay for trauma therapy; they can take paid time for working with a mentor [or] getting an education," Lyndgaard explains. "So, [we're] really trying to invest in their wellness overall so they can continue to thrive on the other side of addiction." That includes Waite, who is thankful for the second chance Unshattered gave to her. "It means a lot," she says. "Sometimes you don't know where to turn, but being here, all you have to do is say something, and tons of resources are thrown at you." She added working with other women with similar pasts has helped her on her road to recovery even more. "It makes the culture here a lot better," Waite says. "When you're out in a regular community...you can sometimes feel unsafe or just triggered by things. It's not the same atmosphere that we have [at Unshattered] where we can really come alongside each other, support each other, help each other grow and just thrive together." Waite says this is her message to women going through recovery: "Keep going. A little slip doesn't mean you have to stay down. You can get back up and there's people waiting to reach out their hands and pull you back up." In June, Unshattered celebrated eight years of employing women in recovery. Since opening, the company has seen 94% of its employees remain committed to their long-term sobriety.
Unshattered is located at 1090 Route 376 in Wappingers Falls. "
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