photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer
Erin Casey, York
Give her a bucket of paint and a brush, and Erin Casey admits she’s “not a good painter.”
Her talents are in organizing and finance.
But when the paint bucket comes with a heartfelt cause, Casey will sling a brush with the best of them. Like the day she and fellow members of the York Central Market board joined vendors in market clean-up day. The doors, in the market’s signature Kelly green, needed a fresh coat of paint, and the board was committed to making “changes that people can see, and giving people reasons to see that the market is on its way.”
“This board is very dedicated to what we need to do to get this turned around,” she says.
Susquehanna Style’s 2010 Women of Distinction combine board-room smarts with can-do attitudes. Each woman sees opportunities for impact close at hand.
Each works with dedicated people to revive and rejuvenate their communities. And each strives to get the job done.
They are: Erin Casey, officer of a York business institution, Rudy Art Glass, but a relative newcomer to a town brimming with possibilities.
Ann Moffitt, executive with Keystone Human Services, Harrisburg, whose work in development touches thousands of lives in the Susquehanna region—and in countries halfway across the world.
Dana Chryst, CEO and owner of The Jay Group, making Lancaster a great place to live for her employees and all families.
Erin Casey grew up on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. What she knew about York, she learned from visiting her mom and stepfather.
“I knew where the mall was. I knew the square. I knew a few things in York, but I didn’t know anybody.”
Casey’s studies took her to the University of Virginia and to Stanford University, for an MBA from its graduate school of business. Her background was in accounting, but she took a job at General Mills in Minneapolis for the marketing experience.
Her stepfather, in the meantime, had purchased Rudy Art Glass, a venerable York business that once made ornate stained glass installations for churches and institutions. Steve Mitchell was transforming the business into a fabricator of specialty safety glass for corporations and residences, and its products can now be seen nationwide, everywhere from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, to the Burger King World Headquarters in Miami.
Casey always had an entrepreneurial itch, and when her mom and Mitchell asked her to join them in continuing to grow and market the business, it felt like a good fit.
“This was a nice hybrid, where I could come into the business and make some changes, but all the infrastructure was already here,” she says. “It’s a fun business. For me, it’s been fun to have my family here.”
She resisted the idea of living in York because she “didn’t know anybody,” but even as she commuted from Annapolis, she was pulled into local causes. Last year, she realized that York was her place—the place to make friends, buy a home, and contribute to a remarkable revival scene.
“I met all these great people who were young and passionate and smart and really interested in seeing that the city succeeds, and it was contagious,” she says. “I really got pulled into the community.”
She found that, “compared to living in other cities, between Washington, DC, and Minneapolis and even California, this has the strongest sense of community. I don’t think you would know that if you didn’t spend a lot of time in York.”
With so much going on, it’s hard to say no to causes that ask for help, but Casey tends to root for the underdog, so she goes where she can make a difference. “What’s the status of the organization? If it’s fine and humming along, does it need me at this point? So far, the two I’m involved in have a great need.”
Those two great-need causes—her primary involvements, among others—are Central Market York and Historic York. Both remain pivotal to the community but have suffered slumps in image, impact, and vitality. Casey can devote up to 20 hours a week to the market, and she does it because she chose a cause that she’s passionate about.
“I walk in that building, and I think it’s a fabulous institution. I really do want to see it succeed. It’s kind of a linchpin to some of the other things going on in the community.”
Casey also served on a team advising Mayor Kim Bracey on the city’s economic development status after Bracey’s election in fall 2009.
“I learned how much is going on that I didn’t know about, how the county is working with the city and economic development to really turn things around—all these things I wasn’t aware of because my head was down in work every day.”
Casey believes that newcomers to York, natives who are returning, and lifelong residents share the realization that their city is a diamond that just needs a bit of polish to regain its sparkle.
“I believe with the energy and the people and focus and excitement, it’s on the upswing,” she says. “We have a long way to go, but it’s headed in a positive direction. Where else do you live that you can be part of a rebirth?”
Dana Chryst, Lancaster
The greatest gift Dana Chryst has from her father, J. Freeland Chryst, is a saying that simplifies decision-making.
“He has a saying: ‘There’s no right way to do the wrong thing,’” says Chryst, CEO and owner of The Jay Group, the firm her father founded. “That has stuck with me and made my life very easy. Obviously, it’s not just a business principle. I grew up like that. Once you understand that you’re going to be faced with difficult decisions, if you’ve got that base and know that this is the way it’s going to be, even if it costs us money or something else, it doesn’t matter. It’s the right thing.”
Dana Chryst grew up in her father’s business, working the floor and even, as a little girl, modeling for a promotion that put her face on the side of Mr. Softee ice cream trucks. Back in the day when most marketing focused on advertising, her father designed promotions that brought foot traffic to stores or attracted buyers through incentives. Turn this key for a treasure from the appliance-store treasure chest. Redeem Mr. Softee popsicle sticks for a teddy bear.
Gradually, as advertising firms started designing promotions in-house, the Jay Group shifted focus entirely to fulfillment—the back end of promotions—such as writing rules, doing filings, and selecting and awarding prizes.
Today, the Jay Group is among the United States’ leading marketing, fulfillment and contact center services, with major corporate clients nationwide.
When she worked at her father’s business during summers in college, Chryst started taking project responsibilities. After she graduated from Millersville University with a business administration degree, her father brought her in as assistant to the president.
“He really took me into his office for six months, and I got a great education,” she recalls.
As she climbed the corporate ladder, Chryst also learned from a monthly gathering of executives called the Tech Group. She was “feeling insecure” because the company was growing in ways she hadn’t seen before, but her peers helped her understand that she could capably handle the same kinds of decisions they were making.
“It was a very affirming experience. Sometimes I think that’s the biggest crisis for a CEO, particularly one that grows up in a family business. You’ve never known anything else and don’t have a gauge to measure your own skill set or your own ability to make these decisions. You sometimes feel you’re sailing without a compass.”
Chryst takes her methodical approach for learning the lay of the land into her community involvements. When she became president of the Lancaster YMCA, “we had one aging facility and were not in great financial shape.”
“It was very simple in my mind,” she says. “We had a tremendous community, very willing to support the Y if it had the right things. We had to be in the right place and provide the right facilities, but I was confident I could get the support.”
A little bit of research revealed that many YMCAs support four or five facilities. She saw no reason why Lancaster County—“a healthy, vibrant community”—couldn’t do the same. She helped bring in a new executive director who became the YMCA’s “life force,” and today, the Lancaster YMCA has facilities downtown and in Lampeter-Strasburg.
“I was at least part of that,” Chryst says.
As a board member for Lancaster General Health, Chryst has gotten “an extraordinary experience” that revealed how fortunate community members are to have excellent health care. With the Milagro House board, she helps house and support single mothers who are furthering their education.
“They have so many success stories of women who leave Milagro House with an education, a good job, and good parenting skills,” she says. “It’s terrific.”
Chryst views community involvement by business on two levels. On a practical level, businesspeople have resources in their employees and business ties. “If you’re going to build a strong community, you’re going to have to create a mechanism to do it. Individuals don’t have the ability to create a network.”
On a higher level, businesspeople owe it to themselves, she says. “This is not a cliche—literally, our employees are our greatest asset. If people aren’t living a high-quality life by virtue of having a great community network of services, they’re not going to be enriched as individuals.”
Ann Moffitt, Harrisburg
Though her mother is gone, Ann Moffitt believes that she’s the true woman of distinction. Her parents—and especially her mother, a human-services professional and active community volunteer who graduated from Columbia University in 1928—taught her to give back.
“You need to be involved to make a difference. Don’t sit around griping about something. Get up and do something about it.”
Her parents taught her that all people are equal, and every life has value. “You can be anything you want to be if you work hard enough and are honest and ethical.”
The lessons of Moffitt’s childhood in rural York County have made a difference to people locally and worldwide. In her career, she has directed YWCAs in Massachusetts and Harrisburg. She took over the reins of the Harrisburg YWCA in the early 1980s, helping to revitalize a demoralized board and relocating—twice—when eminent domain claimed their facilities.
For 20 years, Moffitt has been with Keystone Human Services, serving today as CEO of Keystone Partnership, the umbrella organization for KHS’s many separate agencies, and vice president of community development for KHS.
Sometimes, donors wonder why an organization with a $127 million budget needs their money, but Moffitt reminds them that every dollar makes its way to individuals. Keystone maintains a menu of services, giving every person who enters its orbit customized services—everything from Head Start to counseling, job training to Susquehanna Service Dogs. “Not only are we able to offer services for each person and build on their own strengths, but they decide what they need.”
A bold new pilot program is helping adults with autism—often overlooked despite their need for help adjusting to life after school supports end—hold jobs and live independently. “It’s a life-changing experience. Some of the people are now living in their own apartments.”
Separate from KHS’s services throughout Central Pennsylvania are its international efforts. Among its initiatives, KHS International is helping to close warehouse-style orphanages, establish community services, and provide free counseling in Azerbaijan, Moldova and Russia. Funds must be raised separately from the KHS budget. Even raising $3,000 for a furnace for a Head Start-style center in Moldova requires a distinct—but worthwhile—effort.
“I get to go back and see the difference in these kids,” says Moffitt.
Moffitt holds the rigorous, prestigious ACFRE credential for fundraisers and is a leader in local and national associations for development professionals. By giving back to the field, through training for boards of directors and peers, she manages to keep learning.
“It’s always reenergizing. You can be really tired at the end of the day and know you have to do something, and once you’re there, you’re reenergized.”
Moffitt mentors young development directors and tells each that they need to feel a passion for the cause.
“You really shouldn’t go to work for an organization you don’t totally believe in,” she says. “You as a development person need to be a giver.”
Even outside KHS and her professional field, Moffitt has plunged into such causes as Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, economic development, Planned Parenthood and Kiwanis Club.
Even her husband asks how she keeps everything up in the air.
Her response: “If I feel like I can really help, then why not? If I can be helpful, I want to help other people do what they can do.”
