- Organization Name:
- Ride for Joy Therapeutic Riding Program
- Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
- Ride for Joy is a therapeutic horseback riding program for children with disabilities and we used Adobe's Dreamweaver software to create a beautiful new website for the program. We do not currently have a permanent, dedicated facility with office space, so our website is the only area "open to the public" at all times where people can get more information about how to apply to be a student or volunteer or how to donate. It is innovative because it was such a dramatic improvement over our previous homemade website (using Microsoft Expression Web) and because with Dreamweaver we were able to create a warm, outdoorsy feel that reflects who we are and what we do while bringing the program to life on screen through a backdrop of photos on every page.
- What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
- As a relatively new organization (incorporated in 2007) we are still working to gain full name recognition in the community, and the website is the most important tool for educating the community about what we do. Our previous website was functional but did not reflect the creativity and high quality standards of our program but we did not have the funds available for a professional overhaul of our site. A local bank president who had to lay off his marketing employee recommended him to us as he was starting his own graphics design business. He helped with the design for a nominal fee and taught one of our staff members to use Dreamweaver so we can now manage our site in-house. This local help leveraged the donated software to launch a beautiful, professional website for Ride for Joy that now truly reflects the quality of our program.
- How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
- We are now better able to educate the community about our program through our website, and average page requests per week have generally doubled since we launched the site in early April. Most importantly, the site now truly reflects the quality of our program and volunteer and student inquiries have increased as well.
