“Everyone needs to do their part to get the coronavirus out of here. If people just sit at home and do nothing, nothing will get done.”

You might think that advice came from a TED Talk, a doctor or a motivational speaker. But the inspirational quote is from Parker Drive resident and Mt. Lebanon High School rising sophomore Kate Borza, who has sewn more than 4,000 masks to help keep the deadly virus from spreading in her town. Her positive voice helps fill the chorus of like-minded, do-something people in Mt. Lebanon.

We expected people to jump in to help. But not like this. We didn’t expect Easter baskets for teachers and at-risk families and meals for those in shelters and expertly engineered PPE for medics and hospital workers. We didn’t expect thousands of hand-sewn masks for our first responders.

We should have expected it, because that’s who you are.

And when we publicized Neighborhood Aid, a group of Mt. Lebanon and Dormont public officials and staff who would be coordinating picking up food and prescriptions for people who couldn’t get out of the house, do you know what happened? We got more than 90 volunteers in the first week. In fact, Neighborhood Aid had twice as many people volunteer than requests for help in those early weeks. (If you need help, call 412-253-4104 or go to neighborhoodaid.org.)

In the last few months, others helped by routinely ordering takeout from favorite restaurants to keep cash registers humming or by ordering from local shops instead of online and buying gift cards, just because. Our local businesses needed you, you were there and they are grateful. Please keep it up as the months ahead will be important for them and for all of us as we heal and work to keep the virus at bay.

Read about our amazing Mt. Lebanon residents and how they came together to get it done in Katie Wagner’s stories, beginning on page 32.

Please let us know about others who have helped in the online version of the story on lebomag.com. Let’s recognize every little thing because everything matters.

And again, thank you. We can’t say it enough.

Laura Pace Lilley, Editor in Chief
lpace@mtlebanon.org / 412-343-3552

Stay up to date as places reopen and services return at mtlebanon.org/corona.