When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down concerts and live events in spring 2020, one of Lititz’s most famous companies found a new use for its shops.
TAIT, the Lititz-based firm known for building stunning stage sets and lighting systems for live performances, pivoted to design and manufacture protective equipment for health workers, essential employees and voters.
Face shields for front-line workers
More than 2,000 face shields were made at TAIT’s Lititz headquarters for the nonprofit Emerald Foundation, which distributed them to health care workers and first responders through its “Operation Emerald” effort. TAIT described the work in a social media post on April 29, 2020.
Moravian Manor, the Lititz retirement community, had already announced on April 27 that it received a donation of TAIT-made face shields and other personal protective equipment through Operation Emerald.
Sneeze guards and election barriers
TAIT also built larger items to protect workers from airborne droplets. The company reported producing 6,500 cashier and sneeze guards for pharmacies, hospitals and stores.
“The local Board of Elections requested a similar product, known as polling place election barriers, to protect election workers and voters,” the company said. By late April, TAIT had produced 1,100 of them for counties around the state, ahead of a primary election held during the pandemic.
Asking what was needed
TAIT said it advertised its capabilities on social media and then convened a local task force. “We gathered a task force at our local offices and met with local community leaders in government and healthcare to better understand what was really needed,” the company wrote.
That approach mattered. Rather than guess, the company tried to match its fabrication skills to the shortages hospitals, stores and election offices were actually facing.
Work overseas
TAIT’s team in Great Britain took on a parallel project. Working with a builder of emergency response vehicles, TAIT UK designed and fabricated barriers to separate ambulance drivers from patients. Employees there worked seven days a week to design, build and deploy more than 200 of the barriers.
Quiet until the thank-you
TAIT initially chose not to publicize its efforts. It went public on April 29 mainly to thank its employees. By then, recipients such as Moravian Manor had already been sharing their gratitude online.
A hard season for the company
The pivot came during a difficult stretch. With touring and events canceled worldwide, TAIT laid off 257 members of its Pennsylvania workforce on March 30, 2020, according to the state’s WARN layoff notice system. The filing listed the cuts as “temporary and permanent layoffs due to COVID-19.”
At the same time, Lititz was tracking a rise in local cases. State data that week showed COVID-19 cases in the Lititz area up 31 percent in a single week.
Why it matters
TAIT and the nearby Rock Lititz campus made the borough a global center for live-event production. In spring 2020, that same expertise in fast, precise fabrication was turned toward keeping people safe. Along with efforts like the Stoll and Wolfe Distillery’s shift to disinfectant, it was one of several examples of Lititz businesses adapting to help their community.
From arenas to hospitals
The skills that let TAIT build massive touring stages, with precise metalwork, plastics fabrication and fast turnaround, translated directly to protective equipment. Clear barriers and shields had to be cut, assembled and shipped quickly, often to customers who needed them within days. Many manufacturers across Lancaster County made similar shifts that spring, but few had TAIT’s experience building complex products on tight deadlines for clients around the world.
This story was originally reported by Lynn Rebuck for LititzDailyNews.com in April 2020 and has been updated for our archive.