Wife of Coach keeping busy by sewing great things
April 3, 2020 ~ Today our focus on the good people of football goes to Pittsburgh, PA. Kiya Tomlin, the wife of Pittsburgh Steelers head Coach Mike Tomlin, is making the best of her downtime while in work from home mode. Mrs Tomlin has designed and is producing about 500 non-medical masks per week with some good friends that she is donating to folks that work in the healthcare industry.
In a story by Teresa Varley of the Steelers official website, Kiya Tomlin owns a fashion design studio aptly named, Kiya Tomlin Work/Shop Studio in Etna, PA. Tomlin says," A couple 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." The tweet was forwarded to Tomlin and she contacted some of her staff and asked if they wanted to try and help out. They all said yes and the endeavor began.
Tomlin started by reaching out to friends in the medical field to try and find a place to start with designing the masks based on what the healthcare system needed. Her friends told her that the medical personnel really were looking for the N95 masks, but Tomlin kept looking and found some information with the CDC on making masks for hospital auxiliary support staff so that demand for N95 masks can go to the surgeons and nurses.
Kiya and her staff took that information and did what they do best, design and sew a functional great looking mask that serves the purpose to help those who need it most. Using a mixture of fabric that she had and combined it with materials that others donated to her cause. The design continues to change as she now has incorporated a pocket for a user to place the filter of their choice into the mask.
The story has got out and beside people donating materials, there are also those in the public looking to purchase some of the masks. There are thoughts that possibly the group may sell some to support the costs of donating more to the frontlines of this COVID-19 fight. Many states including Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe have asked that citizens wear non-N95 masks while out in public spaces to protect from further community spread.
The Steelers website asks that if you want to donate 100% cotton quilting fabric to Kiya's cause you can contact her at info@kiyatomlin.us.
Mrs. Kiya Tomlin, we celebrate you and all in our football family that are there to do great things for others. If our readers are aware of anyone else associated with any level of American football that has done a great act of kindness, please let us know via email at PigskinDispatch@gmail.com and we will get one of the crack staff to get an article up to celebrate these good people of football.
