Westmoreland Museum offers free face coverings, pen pal program

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art has developed two new outreach programs, one to supply face coverings to community members and another to to keep in touch with senior citizens during the covid-19 quarantine.

Several staff members applied their sewing talents to the Free Face Coverings Project, creating masksfor people who might not have access to them otherwise.

Three individually packaged face coverings will be placed each day, Monday through Friday, in the Free Little Library near the Greensburg museum’s north entrance on Academy Hill Place. Masks will be restocked weekday mornings at 10 a.m., and the program will continue until supplies run out.

The packages will include instructions on the recommended use and sanitation of the reusable face coverings.

“The Little Free Library does have a knob touchpoint that will be sanitized daily, but when picking up a face covering, we ask that you please practice social distancing and take precautions, like using a clean tissue or wearing a glove,” said Randall Oaks, director of visitor experiences and events. “After you pick up one of the fabric face coverings, please wash before wearing.”

Beginning in mid-March, more than a dozen staff members also set to work on the Postcards That Care initiative, writing messages to seniors on postcards normally sold in the Museum Shop that feature images of artworks from The Westmoreland’s permanent collection.

In collaboration with other nonprofit organizations, including Westmoreland County Area Agency on Aging and Tri-City Meals on Wheels, the handwritten postcards were distributed to nearly 500 seniors. The messages encouraged interested recipients to write back to the museum to be paired with a staff member as their pen pal.

Plans are to expand this ongoing initiative through partnerships with other nonprofits serving area seniors.

“Thinking about the heightened level of isolation that many senior citizens in our community may be experiencing right now, we wanted to reach these seniors in a manner that would be very personal,” said Anne Kraybill, the Richard M. Scaife Director of the museum.

Details: thewestmoreland.org