Sometimes healing comes wrapped in a few threads of yarn.

While hiking the Appalachian Trail as a teen-ager, Linda and three friends was viciously gang raped, beaten, and left for dead. After the horrific attack, it was the silence that brutalized her the most.

“Our testimony was on the front page every day, yet no one acknowledged that it happened,” recalls Linda. “The silence said, ‘You don’t matter.’”

Year later after moving to Chicago, Linda sought professional help. Frustrated over failed attempts to obtain copies of the court transcripts, she turned to C4’s Quetzal Center for help. Several dozen letters and phone calls later, a C4 counselor was able to help Linda obtain some of the court records.

But something else happened. Long buried emotions were unearthed.

“When I finally talked with a C4 counselor, I learned that it was normal to feel shame and numbness,” recalls Linda. “I had buried these emotions for so long.” Linda participated in both individual and group counseling at the Quetzal Center, gaining strength from other survivors.

Now a mother of two teen-age sons and a professional counselor herself, Linda decided to give back. “Threads of Compassion,” a group she founded with another woman helped by the Quetzal Center, invited women affected by violence to knit scarves for victims. So far, more than 100 handmade scarves have been distributed by Quetzal Center and other rape advocates to victims getting emergency treatment.

For Linda and so many others affected by violence, the scarves help break the silence. They remind victims they are not alone.

“Each stitch is knit as a sign of comfort and hope,” says Linda. “We tell victims that when they wear the scarves, they are connecting with someone who cares.”