'Sewing angels' provide 1,000 homemade masks for Pittsburgh police

Pittsburgh police were set to run out of crucial face masks used to combat the spread of the coronavirus when a “sewing angel” in Mt. Lebanon stepped in.

“Every single Pittsburgh police officer, detective, supervisor — even the clerks that work in our buildings — have these masks from Gloria,” said Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Tiffany Costa.

Gloria Horn owns the Gloria Horn Sewing Studio on Castle Shannon Boulevard. Since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, she and her hundreds of customers have been making face masks for friends, family and any front-line worker who needs them.

On Wednesday morning, she handed off the last of 1,000 masks made by her “sewing ladies” to the Pittsburgh police.

Costa, who works in the community outreach division, said the bureau is still waiting on an order of disposable masks that was placed before “Gloria got involved with her team of sewing angels.”

Horn said Costa was skeptical. Costa admits she thought it couldn’t be done.

“When she called me and said we’d like to provide for the Pittsburgh police officers, I suggested she contact some of the smaller jurisdictions because I thought there was no way she could outfit a thousand officers,” she said. “Here we are just a couple weeks later with a thousand masks.”

Steven Rowe, the manager at the sewing studio, said he’s not sure how many patrons have participated in mask-making, but “our ladies are avid sewers, and they came out in full force.”

He said it shows how important community is to the sewers, especially when it comes to first responders and those on the front lines of the pandemic.

Horn sells mask sewing kits for $20, and each kit makes 12 masks. She estimates she and her patrons have made about 35,000 masks since nonessential businesses were shut down in mid-March.

“They wanted to be involved. They were at home not doing anything, and we came up with making the kits for them,” Horn said. “They said it just made them feel good — that they were involved, that they were doing something for people.”

Bunny Donaldson, of Oakdale, dropped off around 100 masks at the sewing studio Wednesday morning. She said she’s been sewing while she watches online sermons from her church, The Church at the Rock.

“It gives us purpose,” she said. “It makes us feel like we’re a part of the people who help.”