Women’s History Month at Astyra

Our Astyra ladies.

Women’s History Month is a time to honor and celebrate women who have made an impact to society through their words and/or actions. While we’re extremely grateful for the many women who have paved the way and allowed us the right to work especially in an office together, we want to recognize our own Astyra women.

We each bring a different skillset, personality and outlook to our work in a way that creatively designs how our our office runs. We work hard and play harder. However, two of our most influential women have been at Astyra for over a decade now and it’s likely that you’ll recognize their names.

For the past 13 years, our Vice President of Operations, Melissa, has dedicated her efforts to managing our Human Resources department throughout her various roles. She has trained many current and past employees, acted as the mediator for Astyra and other companies and done everything operations related that you can imagine!

Our Account Manager, Mary Alice, has been with us for 11 years and juggled multiple positions. She has worked as our front desk office admin, managed some Information Technology tasks and now connects us with companies throughout the United States!

We’re happy to have these two and the rest of our Astyra ladies on our team. We hope to continue to enjoy all that they have to offer!

Who is a woman that you think deserves recognition this month and why? We’d love to hear about other women making a difference!

Holiday Fundraiser For Families

Sam Young, Megan Walker and Ken Ampy pose with the $1,000 check.
Thinking of others is in the air this holiday season! 
 
Megan Walker is a local sports legend; having led Monacan High School to three State Championships before heading to UConn for her college career. Now, as a WNBA professional, Megan wants to give back to her community and she’s doing so through the Ronald McDonald House charities. 
 
Helping the community is right up Astyra’s alley and part of our mission. So, we partnered with Ms. Walker to donate to the worthy cause.

Socially Distanced Picnic at Maymont Park

Working from home for an extended period of time can be hard especially when you’re used to seeing your team in person daily. To cut down on some of the office blues, we all met up in Maymont Park to have a picnic together! Everyone brought their own chair and blanket and we munched on yummy snacks while catching up with each other. Little events like this have kept us all sane and boosted our employee morale during these tough times. What activities have you participated in during quarantine?

Sam Takes On A New Role

Astyra’s President, Sam Young, has completed almost nine years of service as a commissioner at the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA). The RRHA helps individuals and families transform their lives by providing quality housing and opportunities to develop self-sufficiency. This commitment to Richmond’s low income, senior, and disabled residents encompasses community revitalization and development that ultimately benefits all residents of the city. Although Sam is no longer on the Board of Commissioners, he is still dedicated to helping the city’s most vulnerable residents.
 
He now is a new board member at Communities in Schools of Richmond (CIS Richmond). CIS Richmond is connected to a national network of over 200 affiliates to form the nation’s largest and most effective organization dedicated to keeping kids in school. CIS Richmond’s model positions site coordinators inside schools to assess students’ needs and provide resources to help them succeed in the classroom and in life. They partner with local businesses, social service agencies, health care providers and volunteers to provide access to food, school supplies, health care, counseling, academic assistance and positive role models. Their mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.

Rain Coat and Umbrella

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Shaila, Dionne, Lee, Tianna, David, Vivia, Ashley, Mary Alice and James

These past few months have been hard for many and we’re grateful to have such wonderful employees who have weathered this storm with us.

To show our appreciation, we bought custom umbrellas and rain jackets for our entire internal office! With all the rain we’ve been having lately, this rainwear came just in time!

Local COVID-19 Heroes

Photo taken by Kim Barto Meeks
Our very own contractor, Andy Parker, is being featured in the Martinsville Bulletin for his dedication to slowing the spread of COVID-19!
 
Andy was hired on with us in early July as a Contact Tracer and is quickly moving towards becoming a Case Investigator as a reward for his great work. He spends most of his work days contacting those who may be at risk of contracting COVID-19 and offers advice on quarantining.
 
We’re proud to have a dedicated team of individuals who are getting noticed locally!
 

One Foot Makes A Difference

Our Operations Admin & Executive Assistant, Ashley, chose to take on the timely task of growing her hair out long enough to donate 12 inches to Children With Hair Loss!
 
This nonprofit provides free human hair to over 300 children and young adults annually who are struggling with hair loss from various health conditions.
 
We’re lucky to have such giving, innovative members of our Astyra family who find different ways to donate to the community.

Henrico Distribution Project

While our recruiters were busy hiring individuals to help trace the pandemic, our Corporate Communications Specialist, Tianna, was going door to door handing out personal protective equipment (PPE) with Henrico Too Smart 2 Start Coalition board members!
 
Henrico County arranged routes for volunteers to follow in local neighborhoods to ensure the community had enough personal protective equipment to use when businesses began to open. Then, one early Saturday morning, volunteers teamed up to cover each route.
 
“It’s rewarding to hear how appreciative people are that Henrico County arranged this initiative and that we offered to help carry it out,” Tianna said.
 
Although the day went by quickly, the feeling of the kind gesture lasted much longer.

Six-Time Gubernatorial Appointee

For his sixth gubernatorial appointment, our CEO, Ken Ampy, has been reappointed to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) board!
 
Ken will continue to offer his words of wisdom to help improve our state universities and colleges.
 

Astyra’s Annual Holiday Dinner

Sam, Brenna, Lee, Dionne and Ken

Astyra celebrated the holidays with a delicious dinner at Spoonbread Bistro Deux!

The restaurant served a variety of seafood options with a French-inspired Southern flair.

To thank everyone for a productive year, co-founders Ken and Sam, congratulated the internal staff with personal engraved baseball bats. Our home-run hitters, Brenna, Lee and Dionne, were all awarded full-size engraved bats for their extraordinary service to Astyra!

Cheers To 22 Years!

Astyra's internal staff celebrates at Southern Kitchen

22 years ago today, our founding duo Ken Ampy and Sam Young would launch a staffing and consulting firm known today as Astyra Corporation!

Throughout these years the company has changed in terms of the positions we staff for but our vision has remained the same; we strive “to be one of the most recognized community leaders.” We’re happy to say that in these 22 years as a company we have volunteered over 9,500 hours to our community and served as regular volunteers, board members and sponsors for events.

Our excitement builds as we await to see what the next 22 years have to offer.

Thank you to everyone who continuously supports Astyra, our success and our community!

Summer 2019 Superlatives

James, Ashley, Tianna, Carmen, Brittany and Melissa
As a fun bonding activity in the office and to recognize our staff, we held a company awards ceremony.
 
Throughout the week, we casted our votes for categories such as Loudest Sneeze, Best Dressed and Most Likely To Survive The Hunger Games.
 
The results were shocking to our CEO Ken who doesn’t believe he has the messiest desk!
 
We continued to learn more about ourselves and each other by taking a personality test. Although some of us are in similar categories, we have a few rare personality types too!
 
Our belief is that by gaining a greater understanding of one another, we function better as a cohesive team.

Ladies Night At Cooper’s Hawk

The Astyra Ladies
The women of Astyra love to wine and dine, especially together! 
 
We all met at Cooper’s Hawk last week for an evening to unwind with the same people we work alongside daily. The night began with indulging in a wine tasting before being sat down by the waitress for a savory meal.
 
“This just reiterated that Astyra is like a family and I love that,” Ashley, our newest Astyra lady, said.
 
This was Shaila’s first ladies night also and she said getting to know who she works with outside of the office is a nice feeling.
 
Although we aren’t quite sure when this tradition started, we plan to continue having ladies nights!

Reinhart Guest House Visit 2019

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Ashley, Vivia, Brenna, Taylor, Shaila and James
Our Build-Your-Own Breakfast Sandwich Bar
Astyra hosted a staff volunteering day at the Bon Secours’ Evelyn D. Reinhart Guest House in April!
 
The Reinhart House provides lodging for families of patients in the hospital for an extended period. Throughout their stay, various volunteers offer to come and cook a meal for the families to help ease some of their stress.
 
Astyra has volunteered every year for the Reinhart House since 2014! Prior to this, our last visit was in August 2018. This time, the Astyra volunteer group decided to have a Build-Your-Own breakfast sandwich bar complete with various breads, meats and toppings.
 
This was Ashley and Shaila’s first time ever participating in a group volunteer experience with Astyra. Both ladies offered to help with everything including baking bacon, slicing avocados and washing dishes.
 
Ashley said she is excited for our next volunteering event!