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Mt. Lebanon sewing studio helps fill growing demand for masks

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 2 min read
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Mask kits are placed on the front porch of Gloria Horn Sewing Studio for quick, soically distanced pickup.

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A Jefferson Hills Borough police officer picks up masks at Gloria Horn Sewing Studio. The interior layer of cloth features Pittsburgh Penguins logos.

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Finished masks are dropped off at the studio.

With Gov. Tom Wolf’s April 3 recommendation that Pennsylvanians wear protective masks when leaving home, people who know how to work a needle and thread are in even higher demand.

That certainly has been the case for Gloria Horn, proprietor of a Mt. Lebanon sewing studio for 36 years.

Already busy making masks for the likes of nursing homes and home healthcare practitioners, Horn started getting requests from area law enforcement officials for assistance in augmenting their supplies.

“On Sunday morning, I sent out an email to my customers saying that all these police departments need masks: I need you guys to help me, please. Who’s going to protect our men in blue?” she said. “I quit counting at 40 people who responded and said that they would help.”

That evening, she handed out 20 kits, each making 12 masks. And she did the following day, too, all the while stressing a sense of urgency:

“I said to them, ‘You can’t bring these back to me in a week. I need them back by tomorrow or the next day.'”

Customers also have been ordering kits available through the Gloria Horn Sewing Studio, www.sew412.com, and in many cases are donating what they produce. To help ensure sufficient social distancing, Horn has been putting the kits on a bench outside her studio for quick pickup.

“It’s really been wonderful that we can help. It makes us feel good,” Horn said, with many residents welcoming the opportunity to do something productive. “They were just sitting there watching TV, and one told me that she was getting depressed. And then she saw we were making masks. She ran down to the store and got a kit. It was really uplifting to her.”

Through her studio, Horn had supplied thousands of masks for a variety of causes, starting with COVID-19 testing that was being conducted by Dr. Stacy Lane, a local infectious disease specialist. She provided Horn with specifications for what she needed, and Lane also suggested the studio’s resources be used to help fill the rapidly growing demand across the board.

“We started making them for her, and then the whole thing blew up. We started getting our customers to help us,” Horn said. “We quit counting at giving away 4,000 masks.”

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