By Marian Pontz
On a drizzly spring Saturday, when the flowers and trees were at the height of their fragrant bloom, the drizzle adding a sheen to all foliage, we gathered for high tea at the beautiful Pineapple Manor to celebrate Timbrel Chyatee’s newest endeavor—The Chyatee Foundation.
Timbrel Adidala Chyatee has been a part of The Gifts that Give Hope Fair for more than ten years. She has shared her store’s vision and her exquisite goods with all fair visitors, as well as at her brick-and-mortar shop at 101 North Queen in Lancaster City. We have learned of her story, as a young premed Millersville University student leaving academia behind to explore her Indian roots and her dreams of creating original household and fashion pieces. These pieces support people in India with a fair wage, and give us an opportunity to buy her original designs knowing we are doing more than buying—we are supporting a better life for people thousands of miles away. Her pieces range from bespoke wedding gowns, tuxedos, and prom dresses, to every day (but certainly not boring) wares. The fusion of her roots (Western and Eastern), her worldly outlook, and her humanitarian spirit flows from her designs to create the original Chyatee look.
As Timbrel explained to her well-dressed, supportive visitors—who enjoyed their delicious treats of fresh salad, finger sandwiches, and lavender scones—her mother says that the best word to describe her daughter is resilient. That is a true understatement. As Timbrel explained that, within the last few years, her company in India was robbed of all of their sewing machines, locked down during Covid (during which she watched her neighbors and workers begin to starve, so she took her life savings to buy food to distribute throughout her community), then returned to the U.S., only to be sued by a huge conglomerate with an army of lawyers threatening that she had to change her name and all of her branding. Because of this, she had to shut down her website and her store, leaving her with no income or funding. But, through it all, she persevered.
Then, when she was at her lowest, she was contacted by a family in India who explained that 50 years before, their grandmother had purchased a building and founded a sewing school. After the grandmother’s passing, the family wanted to sell the school, as well as all of the sewing machines, tables, and more, for the original price of what their grandmother had paid for the building in the 1970s: $8,000. The family wanted to sell to someone like Timbrel who would support, teach, and care for the community, as their grandmother had done for so many years. She used her own limited, personal savings for a house, bought the building, and organized the Chyatee Foundation. The Foundation’s funding will be used to renovate the school, as well as to hire teachers to help her employees learn financial skills and community lending, provide daycare for their children, and—never forgetting her Lancaster community—to fund scholarships and offer mentorships for BIPOC entrepreneurs.
On so many levels and in so many ways, Timbrel has brought beauty to our world. Through her original fashion designs, which were modeled for us during our high tea, to her determination to find a way to support both of her communities—Lancaster and India—to the frankness in which she spoke to us of the difficulties that almost defeated her. Through her connections and friendships, she was able to see light and move forward. She is, as she says, a dreamer and a romantic who has never stopped believing that we can do more together. Timbrel does the hard work for us all. All we have to do is enjoy these beautiful and transformative gatherings and give a little love to The Chaytee Foundation, knowing we are investing in the dreams of a woman changing the world with her resilience.
