The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
As businesses begin to slowly open back up in Pittsburg, the need to maintain safety measures and regulations is vital in maintaining a safe and healthy environment. Included in these measures are the use of protective facemasks for employees to wear.
Two Pittsburg businesses, Miller’s Professional Imaging and U.S. Awards, are working together to donate 5,000 facemasks to local employees.
Blake Benson, Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce President, appreciates and recognizes the importance of donations like these to the Pittsburg community.
“It’s especially noticeable that both U.S. Awards and Millers that are now both big companies that are doing this,” Benson said. “Both of them were founded as very small businesses here in Pittsburg and they’ve grown, and I think that just shows that our businesses take care of their community and take care of one another, so I think it was really a great example of two companies that have been successful here for many, many years, really paying it forward to other businesses in Pittsburg.”
The creation of the masks will be two pronged, with Miller’s printing the masks and then sending them over to U.S. Awards, a local manufactured, to provide the cutting and sewing. All the facemasks will have the “Pittsburg Strong” slogan on them. The masks will be made of a non-woven fabric that will provide a significant level of micron filtration over masks made of cotton or polyester.
In a press release, Todd Coleman, President and Chief Operating Officer at Miller’s said, “local businesses have a special place in our hearts at Miller’s.”
Coleman’s grandfather got his start as a small business owner is Pittsburg in 1939, and as a result, Coleman has a great appreciation for local businesses.
“…We’ve never lost that appreciation for the impact that local businesses play in our community,” Coleman said in a press release. “Any role we can play in helping businesses re-open safely, we want to do.”
According to Benson, almost all the 5,000 masks have been received by local businesses.
“Something that’s pretty cool is the fact that we’ve had over 200 local businesses request a mask, so it’s really being spread out over literally hundreds of businesses,” Benson said.
Benson said that to receive the facemasks, he would get in touch with the business to set up a time for them to go to the Chamber and pick the masks up.
“U.S. Awards will call us when they’ve got a shipment ready for us to pick up,” Benson said. “We’ll go down there, and we’ll bag it up according to how many each business will be getting then we just reach out to the businesses…”
Joe Dellasega, U.S. Awards President, said in a press release that Miller’s support of the Pittsburg community has been great and that they are proud to work with the company for the project.
“It is no surprise to anyone that they wanted to step up to help other businesses in this unique time in our country,” Dellasega said in a press release. “We’re proud to partner with Miller’s to ensure local employees, and their customers, are safe as they go back to work.”
Benson believes the donation by Miller’s and U.S. Awards will benefit local businesses.
“It’s protecting their employees and their customers,” Benson said. “Almost every business owner that I’ve talked to, they look at their employees and their customers as family and they have seen this as a way to protect their family.”