‘WE CANNOT JUST CLOSE’
For state’s attractions with live animal life, pandemic survival brings extra challenges
Without even factoring in the life-or-death implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early stages, Stephen Coan and Jason Patlis had another pressing survival issue before them in March 2020: the continuing care of thousands of critters in the tanks and habitats of the Mystic Aquarium and the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk.
In the weeks to come, they would get a lifeline via spur-ofthe-moment emergency donations. At least for the moment, that helped settle the larger question of the survival of two of Connecticut’s most popular nonprofit attractions.
Statewide, nonprofit venues appeared to pull through the pandemic’s earliest stages thanks to infusions from institutions and wealthy donors, it is becoming clear from financial filings that have since surfaced. For many of those attractions, that helped buoy a bottom line that sinking ticket and membership sales would have dragged down otherwise.
But while some venues, such as theaters, could simply lock up and cut expenses closer to zero, shutting down was not possible for the aquariums in Norwalk and Mystic, nor the
Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport.
“We certainly learned how to do more with less — however, I don’t really want to live that lesson again,” said Stephen Coan, CEO of the Mystic Aquarium and its nonprofit parent, Sea Research Foundation. “There were definitely some people who came forward who are true friends — who came to us in a time of great need and were willing to help.
“I am eternally grateful,” he added. “We would not be here today without them.”
Those words could be uttered at the board meetings of any number of nonprofits statewide, whether or not they were able curtail operations to ride out the pandemic shutdown.
Those leaders demonstrated creativity and learned lessons that will contribute to the resiliency of the institutions they steward, said Kristen Phillips, former executive director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra who is now vice president of nonprofit advising for strategy consultancy Corbin Advisors.
“The pandemic affected the very core and the very mission of so many of our nonprofits here in Connecticut,” Phillips said. “For lesser organizations, it could have very well put
them out of business.”
Lifeline at an important time
At the outset of the pandemic, the Mystic Aquarium kept a skeleton staff of about one of every five workers on hand to care for the animals and run the systems on which they depend. From $12.4 million in its 2019 fiscal year, the Mystic Aquarium saw its ticket sales plunge by nearly half over the following 12 months. Also tailing off were memberships that allow for repeat visits, and revenue from events.
The state stepped in with a $7 million loan commitment, allowing the aquarium’s nonprofit parent to pay off debt to private-sector lenders. As the financial markets stabilized, the aquarium ended up needing less than half of the state’s funding commitment, which came with a provision that the aquarium pay back the state with fresh financing as the capital markets reopened.
“That lifeline came at a very important time for the institution — not only to provide assurances that we could continue to provide for the animals, but also it opened the door for us to negotiate with our lenders and to raise significant private capital,” Coan said.
“We raised over $11 million in 2020 for continuation of operations and for retirement of debt . ... We had several seven-figure donations.”
Even today, however, Coan said that foot traffic remains off from levels before the pandemic, whether on school days that would ordinarily draw more field trips, or families on trips to Mystic that might include tandem visits to the Mystic Seaport or other draws in the area.
“Certainly during COVID, there were fewer people coming from longer distances,” Coan said. “Whether that continues or not, I don’t know.”
Staycation for prairie dogs
At Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, more New York plates are visible in the parking lot in the spring of 2022 than in the years before the pandemic, according to Gregg Dancho, the zoo’s longtime director, even with rising gas prices that have prompted some families to consider mileage as a bigger line item when considering any day trips.
Dancho describes the early weeks of the pandemic as “a lot of sleepless nights” as Beardsley missed a big chunk of its prime season, when school trips dominate weekdays and families pour in on weekends.
He added some of the zoo’s animals appeared to miss the bustle of people, particularly the otters and spider monkeys — though the prairie dogs seemed to appreciate the unexpected vacation from from kids popping into the viewing bubbles in the midst of their enclosure.
But the zoo made it through the nightmare scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic, marking its centennial year with plans for a gala fundraiser two days before Halloween in Westport.
Last month, Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Bridgeport, proposed the state borrow up to $5 million to support infrastructure repairs and exhibits at Beardsley Zoo. Two major projects on the books are a new habitat for Andean bears that is on pace to open in June, and further out an expanded pen for Amur tigers that could allow the zoo to maintain as many as five.
But beyond that, Dancho said the institution needs to have a bigger reserve on which it can draw for any future emergency, both in a large endowment that throws off more cash to support operations, and in any line of credit from a bank or state commitment for an infusion of funds.
The Connecticut Zoological Society, its nonprofit parent, reported assets of just over $10 million in December 2019, months before the pandemic closures.
If Connecticut’s two aquariums were able to land big donations from individuals, Beardsley Zoo relied on smaller donations that added up alongside the number of people giving to the institution.
This year and next, however, Beardsley is getting the single biggest tranche of federal funds as earmarked by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, at nearly $250,000 in each of the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years that end in June.
“Getting away from the attraction side of it, we have a living collection, we are working with endangered species,” Dancho said. “If you look at all the education programs, the conservation work, this is where a lot of people don’t understand the work that we do here.
“They just think, ‘Hey, it’s Sunday afternoon — let’s go to the zoo and grab a snow cone, and ride the carousel, and go look at the animals.’ There’s so much more to that.”
‘Still catching up’
Maritime Aquarium devotes about half of its roughly $1 million monthly operating budget to the fish and mammals under its roof, according to CEO Jason Patlis, who arrived months ahead of the pandemic, in November 2019.
“I was thinking of long-term survivability,” Patlis said. “We cannot just close and send everybody home and not have any ongoing costs, like a movie theater or like a symphony hall. The bulk of our expenses are maintaining the lives and health of 7,000 animals.”
Patlis gives credit to donors who stepped up early on with extra help, Fairfield County Bank which extended a $750,000 line of credit, and ultimately government assistance — including Lamont’s program for free summer admission. This week, Lamont told Hearst Connecticut that he hopes to bring that program back this summer, as well to help put nonprofits on even more solid ground.
“A lot of them are still catching up,” Lamont said. “Rather than just handing them money, it was, ‘Hey, let’s get the kids in there.’”