In April, we co-launched the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT in partnership with TransPride Pittsburgh. Our immediate goal was to secure face masks to distribute to the trans and queer community through donations and by identifying affirming vendors.
By mid-May, we had distributed more than 1500 masks to individuals and to LGBTQ organizations. We asked the Pittsburgh Equality Center to become our fiscal sponsor and completed that process. We grew the leadership team to five individuals and began building a reserve of volunteers to do everything from sew masks to drive the delivery routes.
As of mid-June, we have completed a second round of deliveries to about 3/5 of our list. We are providing each household two masks per person per month. Households include family, housemates, etc. Our hope is that everyone will have 1 mask to wear, 1 mask to wash, and build a little stockpile to cope when a mask is stained or torn or lost.
We are finalizing the last two routes and the masks that have to be mailed. We are getting the last of our current inventory out to ‘packers’ and we are considering what comes next.
The number one thing you can do to support this work is to encourage folks to register for masks. You are not taking a mask away from someone with a greater need. Your mask protects all of us and your participation in the project encourages others to ask for support.
We especially need help finding folks in the outlying counties. We purposefully do not have a rigid geographic boundary because we want to serve Williamsport, Steubenville, and the panhandle.
You can also volunteer. We need sewists to make masks especially when we get certain requests to accommodate folks. We have fabric, we have nose pieces, we even have a little elastic. Reach out to get involved for one time or on an ongoing basis. PghMasQUeProjecT@gmail.com
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This Friday, we are launching a MasQUe Up meetup on Zoom. Email for more information and the link. It will be 7:00 – 7:40 PM. This is a trial run PghMasQUeProjecT@gmail.com
So we’ve got a little of this, a little of that to help you get your Pride on – you can give back, you can socialize safely, you can learn the MasQue UP anthem.
