Wimmer Watercooler Newsletter - Blog Connection October 2022

Welcome to the Wimmer Watercooler Newsletter blog connection for October 25, 2022. Dive into more details regarding our teammates, what's happening in the company, and more!

We recommend that you follow us on social media for the most up-to-date content from Wimmer Solutions:

In this blog post, you will find:

  • Solutions Spotlights: Deanna Johnson & Shynggys Amirkazhiyev  
  • Charity Focus: Barbara Butler Harris for Girl Scouts of Western Washington
  • Event Recap: PSBJ Washington Best Workplaces - Award Acceptance, September Fun Photo Contest
  • Upcoming Event: Halloween Jack-O-Lantern + Costume Photo Contest

Meet our September Solution Spotlights

Deanna Johnson, Global Director of Recruiting

Deanna Johnson

Global Director of Recruiting

Seattle, Washington USA

Deanna is celebrating her 4 year anniversary with Wimmer Solutions in October! Congratulations, Deanna and thank you for your hard work!

Deanna is a hands-on Global Director of Recruiting who thinks outside of the box to accomplish the task at hand. She has worked in both agency and corporate IT recruiting - bringing a well-rounded blend of experience to the table. It's this experience and her energetic, positive attitude that she states are directly related to her individual success and her team's forward momentum. She loves challenges and tends to wear quite a few hats.

"I love what I do! I'm an IT talent ace, and I'm proud that I've built and led high performing IT recruiting teams. I bring a well-rounded blend of expertise through my life experiences that directly relate to identifying company diversity intensions, gaps, and initiatives."

Deanna strives to successfully manage people to bring the best out of each person - finding and supporting their strengths to collectively increase productivity and work satisfaction. She also hopes that there's some fun weaved into the work as well, and that it generates individual joy and a better work environment.

Deanna loves spending time with family and friends. She has been married for 32 years and is a very proud mother of two boys (Blake and Brock) and their adorable Aussiedoodle, Brodie. She states, "It's tough  to be a working parent. Juggling a demanding career and still managing to attend games, plays, etc. Both my boys are now young men and on their way building their lives. When I look at each of them, I feel intensely proud  knowing I'm part of who they are!" Deanna is an avid Seattle Seahawks & Mariners fan and says that she's typically that "gal that is all geared up and yelling in the stands or at the TV."

Some of Deanna other interests include:

  • Cooking (and she's an even better baker!)
  • Designing Tablescapes
  • Exploring new restaurants (food is the focus!) and communities and cultures

Thank you Deanna, for your handwork and being a leader in Recruiting. We are so happy to have you and congrats again on your work anniversary!

👋 Join Deanna's network on LinkedIn---> Deanna's LinkedIn Profile

Shynggys Amirkazhiyev, Wimmer Solutions Software Engineer

Shynggys Amirkazhiyev

Software Engineer

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Shynggys is a Software Engineer with Wimmer Solutions. His expertise is full development (from scratch to production!) Shynggys is a flexible, talented developer that has crafted excellent tech solutions for both clients and internal projects with Wimmer Solutions for 3 years.

After hours, Shynggys is active and engaged in quite a few hobbies. One of his favorite past times is playing football (soccer) with his friends. It seems like he also gets into some fun situations with his friends, as he shared that an interesting fact is that he and his friends have run away from a real bear in the mountains. (We're glad you made it away safely!)

A few more of Shynggys interests:

  • Traveling
  • Snowboarding
  • Chess (He's currently trying to reach 2000 ELO!)

🙌 Learn more about Shynggys by following him online ---> Connect with Shynggys on LinkedIn

Don’t forget to nominate your coworkers for Solution Spotlight! We want to know who needs to be acknowledged for the amazing work they do! >>>> Nominate a Wimmer Solutions Spotlight

October Charity Focus - The Girl Scouts of Western Washington

Barbara Butler Harris for Girl Scouts of Western Washington

Barbara Butler Harris is Wimmer Solutions' Talent Program Manager. She nominated Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls with the mission statement to "build Girl Scouts of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place." Members unleash their potential through the Girl Scout Leadership Experience—a collection of engaging, challenging, and fun activities like earning badges, going on awesome trips, selling cookies, exploring science, getting outdoors, and doing community service projects.

Barbara has been involved with Girl Scouts since she was one herself in elementary school. Her kid became a Girl Scout in 3rd grade, with Barbara starting her child's troop (#46724) and acting as their Troop Leader. She has been the troop leader for 6 years and the troop Cookie "Mom" for the last 2 years. She has also been the area's Volunteer Manager for the last 4 years and the area Cookie Manager for the last 2 years. Her child is now in 9th grade, and both continue to be highly active and invested in supporting their troop and Girl Scouts.

I love my current troop. We’ve been together since Fall 2016. I have 3 kids from that original troop. At one point we had as many as 18 kids in the troop, and we are now at 8. The kids are in 8th and 9th grade now, so it is harder to keep them interested in Girl Scouts, so we work to do things that they want to do and allow them to attend as they can – now that school and other interests are taking over.

As Troop Leader, Barbara helps her scouts choose activities and gain funding for their adventures. She states that some of her favorite parts of being a leader include being able to introduce Girl Scouts to those that have never heard of the organization before -- The troop is beyond thrilled to add new families from India and Asian-American backgrounds, and Barbara delights in having shared S'mores with her troop girls as they experienced it for the first time. Another favorite activity is camping. Barbara states, "I am not a camper but have grown to love camping with the troop. The kids plan the activities and the food and cook for us."

Troop #46724 Camping

Camping is just the tip of the iceberg for activities for the Girl Scouts. Barbara loves to find unique activities for them to do, and shares that her troop has experienced the following:

  • Iron Forging (they each made chopsticks)
  • 3 of them flew planes this summer – yep in the pilot seat
  • Tree climbing – ropes
  • Pottery
  • Horseback riding
  • Archery
  • Glassblowing
  • They're finally going Whitewater rafting Summer 2023 – An activity planned for Summer 2020
  • Whale watching
  • STEM classes (robots, Strawberry DNA extraction, archaeology, etc.)

Girl Scouts take on Canoeing

Overall, Barbara enjoys seeing them try new things and having fun together. She emphasizes that all of their activities are funded by the proceeds from selling cookies. She encourages everyone to help support Girl Scouts and troops like hers by donating and buying cookies - especially from older Scouts, since they have a much harder time raising funds versus the younger members, who are often dubbed 'cute' and more 'age appropriate' for Girl Scouts. Barbara is trying to help her troop members continue to invest in themselves and stay connected.

"My goal is to have them all stay in the troop through high school and then use remaining cookie money to purchase them all “lifetime membership” to girl scouts.  That way, when they are 80, they can say they’ve been a Girl Scout almost their entire lives," Barbara states.

Two of her older Scouts continue to work toward high level badges and achievements - particularly their Silver Award, the highest award that can be earned for middles schoolers. Barbara shared their latest work, in which the two Scouts are working toward CPR awareness and improvements. Barbara shared their discovered statistics: People with breasts are 27% less likely than people without breasts to receive CPR from the public because of modesty concerns/touching breasts/etc. The Scouts discovered a UK published pattern to make a 'vest' that can be used on traditional CPR dummies to convert them to a dummy with breasts. The kids presented this dummy to the Bothell Fire Department on September 27th, 2022, with the hope that they will use the improved dummy in their community CPR classes so people can learn what it looks and feels like to give CPR with breasts - and learn placement of the AED. They hope that this effort can save more lives in the future.

Troop #46724 with their modified CPR Dummy

Barbara works hard as Troop Leader to keep her kids together, invested, and working toward a future that is better due to their own experiences and hard work.

Girl Scouting isn’t just badges, crafts, and cookies.  It’s a way for kids to find friends, discover activities and interests they might never have known about, and a way for them to grow. As a leader, I think I may have gotten more out of Girl Scouts than the kids.

We think she's done amazing work and we are are beyond thrilled to be donating to Girl Scouts of Western Washington in her name. Keep up the hard work and dedication, Barbara, and we are so happy to be supporting your cause (and cookie sales soon!)

Visit the Girl Scouts of Western Washington website to learn more and donate today >>>

Event Recap | PSBJ Washington Best Workplaces - Award Acceptance

Wimmer Solutions staff attended the PSBJ Award Ceremony to accept our award in August 2022

Wimmer Solutions placed in the top 100 2022 Best Workplaces in Washington state!

The Puget Sound Business Journal's annual countdown of the state's top workplaces helps recognize companies whose employees have great things to say about them. Placing on the list is based on what our employees reported on PSBJ's survey, sent out earlier this year. The rankings of this list were revealed at their event in August.

We ranked #14 out of Washington State's top 100!

The Award Ceremony event took place on August 19th at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington. In the above, topmost photo you can see, left to right, Global Director of Recruiting, Deanna Johnson and CEO Matt Sauri holding a commemorate plaque. In the left side photo, Consulting Business Manager, Noah Blank and Managing Director of Professional Sales, Preston Peterman pose for a photo at the event. In the last, right most photo, Director of Business Development (Western Region), Lane Bueche grabs a selfie with Deanna and Matt.

Great job team, and thank you to all our employees that help us reach such great heights with their dedication and support!

See the official announcement on PSBJ's site >>>

Event Recap | September Adventure Online Photo Contest

Our September Adventure Online Photo Contest was a success! We loved seeing everyone's best photos from their Summer / Fall 2022 Adventures.

We had an amazing turnout, with 19 photos submitted and 45 voters participating! Congratulations to our winners:

1st Place: Kaylyn Sneathen

Kaylyn Sneathen and her pup on a hike.

The photo shows Kaylyn and her dog, Roux, out on a 10 mile hike at Grieder Lakes in Washington, USA.

Kaylyn stated,  "Thank you so much for the votes! It was a great hike, with the real appeal/show stealer being Roux. I am willing to share so many more cute photos of him - he's horribly photogenic and my phone is too full."

2nd Place: Hyacinth Estidola

Hya Estidola and her boyfriend on a hanging bridge in the Philippines

In the photo, Hya and her boyfriend pose on a hanging bridge on vacation in Batangas, Philippines.

About the photo, Hya stated, "Given our career choices, we're lucky if we get to spend special days of the year together, so a spontaneous trip like this is one for the books."

3rd Place: Barbara Talbot

Barbara and her son, Atticus, at Edmond Pier, WA

Barbara's photo shows some quality time spent with her son, Atticus.

"This was the first time my son, Atticus, was at the ocean. We went to Edmond Pier and Atticus was looking everywhere and pointing out all the new things around him. He loved watching the seagulls dive into the ocean. My husband, Nick, found this spot in the grass and we took quite a few photos. It's amazing experiencing things when they are new through the eyes of your child."

Upcoming Event | Halloween Spooktacular Photo Contest

Halloween Photo Contest Announcement
Join Us for a Halloween Photo Contest

Share Your Costumes + Carvings to Win Prizes!

Welcome to the Wimmer Solutions' Halloween Spooktacular Costume and Pumpkin Carving Contest! Submit your best Halloween costume pictures of either yourself and/or your family. You may also upload a second picture to show off your pumpkin carving (or painting!) skills. Your co-workers will vote on their favorites and prizes will be given for both categories.

Once we've collected everyone's pictures, we will be sending a follow-up email with a link to start voting!

 

Prizes:

1st Place: $100

2nd Place: $50

3rd Place: $25

Keep an eye on your email for a link to start submissions! We can't wait to see all your fantastic photos!