Award-Winning Website Spreads Message For SWAN

When the SWAN website created by the team at YDOP - a digital marketing firm located in Lancaster - received a Gold award from the Horizon Interactive Awards, YDOP CEO Steve Wolgemuth was pleased. "It's a real honor to receive that and be recognized for the good work," said Wolgemuth. The Horizon Interactive Awards is a competition recognizing outstanding achievements in website design.

But Wolgemuth was more excited about what the website can do for SWAN (Scaling Walls A Note at a Time), which offers free music lessons to School District of Lancaster students affected by parental incarceration. "Any visibility we can bring to that organization ... to make people aware of these children is a very positive thing for us," said Wolgemuth.

Wolgemuth was first introduced to SWAN by a business coach. "When I heard (SWAN's) story, I felt a calling to help," recalled Wolgemuth, who noted that he was spurred to action by hearing that at that time 4,000 school-age children within a short distance of downtown Lancaster were impacted by parental incarceration. "When I learned about the trauma associated with that for children and the negative impact that trauma can have, that raised my level of passion," he said. Wolgemuth also learned of the positive impact SWAN's program of music lessons and mentorship can have. He joined the board and got involved.

Wolgemuth was excited to see SWAN grow from offering only private instruction to group lessons, which involved choruses, rhythm bands, and ukuleles. "That enabled (SWAN) to reach and connect with many more children," said Wolgemuth, who noted that COVID-19 restrictions set the program back, but not for long. "We kept pressing forward, and (SWAN is) ready to open up a new day and get back to where we were," he said.

In 2021, YDOP's team sought a project that would help it continue to contribute to the Lancaster community that team members care about. "We looked at (SWAN's) marketing and web presence, and we thought, 'This is something we know how to do,'" reported Wolgemuth. "That's how the website rebuild came along." The site was rebuilt for SWAN by YDOP at no charge.

SWAN posted a blog about the effort that read "YDOP's marketing team excelled at building SWAN's new site. They created a fresh look that is in perfect harmony with the quality content."

Wolgemuth noted that the award-winning work was jumpstarted by the importance of helping those who cannot help themselves. "(You are inspired) when you discover a sector of the population that is so under the radar and you realize if you don't help, no one else is waiting in line to do it," he said. "(These children) didn't do anything to bring this into their lives, and if we can't help this group of children in trauma, what kind of people are we? That attracted my team to get involved and really care."

Readers who would like to know more about SWAN may visit https://swan4kids.org. More information about YDOP's award may be found at http://www.ydop.com/articles/2021-horizon-interactive-awards.