Kiya Tomlin, a clothing designer and wife of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, is using her talents to help the Pittsburgh community during the coronavirus outbreak.
Tomlin runs a clothing business that focuses on using handmade, environmentally-friendly fabric. Tomlin and her staff haven't been able to work in their Etna-based studio due to the shutdowns, bringing the production of their spring collection to a halt. They've instead been using this time to create protective masks for hospital workers.
"A couple of weeks ago, before Pittsburgh really had any cases, and it was just becoming a known problem, Rachel Maddow had retweeted something from a hospital system in Evansville, Indiana that said they had a shortage of masks and were asking for all home sewers to jump in because they had a shortage of masks," Tomlin told the Steelers' website. "Someone forwarded it to me. I thought I have people that are sitting home I am paying who aren't working, so I reached out to them and asked them if they wanted to do it. They were like yeah, of course."
Tomlin and her staff gathered the fabric they had on hand from the clothing business, and accepted fabric donations from other businesses, including fabric printed with the Steelers logo. The masks they make are reusable and CDC-compliant, with a slot in the fabric for filters to be inserted. Tomlin and her staff are able to make 500 masks per week, which are then donated to Pittsburgh hospitals, where they are sterilized and given to hospital support staff, allowing the higher-protection masks to be reserved for surgeons and nurses. Other masks have been given to local police departments.
Tomlin told ESPN that each mask takes about eight minutes to produce, and that they also ship masks to Cleveland and New York hospitals.
"It's hard to sit here and watch, and people that you know are risking their lives underprepared to take care of people and we are all worried about getting our hands dirty at the grocery store," Tomlin said. "It's good to be able to support those people, even though I can't do what they do. What I do is in support for them. What I have heard they appreciate it and I am happy to do it.
"There is that sense here in Pittsburgh of helping. It's like a tight knit family. It's like one little click town. That is very different from other areas we have lived in. It's a unique thing Pittsburgh has."
Tomlin said that she has received requests from the public to be able to purchase her masks, and that she is working on a system that would benefit healthcare workers with the proceeds from sales.
"Initially we were just donating them, that is what we do," she said. "We have such a high demand for people to buy them. We might do something where if you buy six, we can donate six to healthcare workers. People understand we aren't selling them yet, but still want to know as soon as we sell them.
"I have a feeling we are going to have to wear these and people are going to need them. We are going to have to sell them at some point soon.
"People want to help. And it's great. Pittsburgh definitely has the heart to help."
Tomlin and her team are still accepting 100 percent cotton quilting fabric donations for their masks. People interested in donating fabric can email Tomlin at info@kiyatomlin.us.
Tomlin's online clothing store is also still taking orders during the shutdown, and 20 percent of all sales will go toward funding efforts fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
