Ocean Institute 2020 Review: Our mission prevails.
December 2020
Using the Ocean as our Classroom, We Inspire Children to Learn
re·sil·ience /rəˈzilyəns/ The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. 2020 has been a year like no other.
It taught us to focus on what we can do.
It demanded new depths of creativity, innovation, teamwork, and passion to deliver on our mission.
It necessitated unprecedented speed and generosity in support from our community.
EVERYONE rose to the challenge. And our mission prevailed.
2020 Timeline Largest annual fundraiser was cancelled due to social gathering restrictions limiting groups to 250 or less
March 9
OI receives a cascade of field trip cancellations from schools as district-level restrictions eliminated field trips
March 9-13
Ocean Institute shut down due to COVID restrictions dropping gatherings below 50.
March 16
Cancellation of Grand Opening of the Sahm Family Foundation Marine Education Center
March 18
Notification of the sinking of the Pilgrim
March 29
100 staff members furloughed
March 30
Recovery efforts to raise the Pilgrim were called off by the Coast Guard, shifting efforts to demolition.
April 4
2020 Timeline April 29
Ocean Institute receives PPP loan, inviting the entire staff to return.
May 28
OI begins live stream programs with Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC) through Seacrest Studios.
June 3
Ocean Institute receives an SBA Small Business Loan, giving us more time and space to create new programs.
June 8
OI launches our Virtual Learning program with over 600 participants for “Shark Week”.
June 22 – August 14
OI delivers SOLD OUT small-scale, socially appropriate summer camps.
August November
OI develops and delivers the Seaside Academy, a full-day program for academic support and enrichment for students as schools remain closed.
September 11-13
OI brings together global partners to deliver the inaugural virtual Maritime Festival.
December
Ocean Institute introduces ALL OUT programming- outdoor experiences for families and “Smalliday” camps.
Resilience in Action Delivering on Our Mission‌. always and all ways.
Spring 2020: Virtual Becomes Real
May 2020: Mission Possible Using the Ocean as Our Classroom, We Inspire Children to Learn Virtual lessons, workshops, and field trips brought enrichment to children in hospitals, shelters, childcare programs, homes, and schools.
Since the launch in September, we have reached over 2,500 children with our small group, interactive, live programs.
Small-Scale Summer Camp SOLD OUT With safety standards at the highest levels, Ocean Institute offered small-scale summer camps, retaining our incredible team while fulfilling our community’s enrichment needs.
September 2020: (Inaugural) Virtual Maritime Fest Our traditional Tall Ships Festival was not possible this year, but something even bigger was. Ocean Institute organized and hosted a 3-day virtual maritime festival with live streamed workshops, demonstrations, and interviews with organizations from across the globe. We refer to this eort as our “inaugural eventâ€? as we will continue to host it annually.
We enjoyed 388,000 hits to our site across the 3-day event.
Sponsored By
Our Virtual Maritime Festival reached 388,000 viewers from across the globe
FALL 2020
Seaside Academy Ocean Institute stepped up when schools were shut down with our Seaside Academy.
Full-day academic support and enrichment helped students complete their online schoolwork, in our motivating context. Students zoomed o their computers to engage with our marine life and participate in the best of Ocean Institute’s activities.
Fall: OI GOES ALL OUT
Outright Inspiring The great outdoors provided the perfect living lab as restrictions closed indoor spaces.
Ocean Institute’s geology walk, tide pool hikes, native plant talks, and kayak excursions were a breath of fresh air at a time with limited options for safe and stimulating enrichment.
Shut Down? Spruce UP!
Ready To Welcome You Back! As a 43 year old organization with approximately 100,000 visitors each year, downtime is hard to come by.
As restrictions slowed the pace, Ocean Institute changed our face!
A new website and fresh paint job has us spruced up and ready to welcome our visitors back.
2021 Initiatives Breaking Through & Breaking Barriers
Adopt-A-Class (AAC) Schools will not have the funding or the ability (social distancing on school buses = impossible) for enrichment un;l, at the earliest, September 2021. The interest in our virtual field trips and kit-based programs, however, has been off the charts with hundreds (literally) of schools responding when we recruit for grant-funded opportuni;es. We aim to remove all access obstacles and financial barriers by growing our AAC fund. Given the price point of our virtual programs (between $300-$500), support goes FAR in terms of students reached and with our online companion curriculum for teachers, it makes a deep impression. This fund also supports Student Aid for our individual fee-based programs.
Public Programs We have been extremely nimble in oering experiences to the public that align with our vigilant safety standards. We are seeking support to con;nue to serve the public on the weekends. Underwri;ng allows us to stay the course through the ups and downs and gives us the opportunity to build our revenue stream. It is a giR that gives back and, similar to AAC, supports sta reten;on, program development, and the community.
Our re-opening and weekends were made possible in 2020 through the generous support of SoCalGas.
Team. Team. Team. Our Greatest Asset.
Despite the challenges, Ocean Institute has retained our team! The PPP loan enabled us to invite all of our team members back. With each change in restrictions, the team huddled up, hunkered down, and got to work creating new programs grounded in our mission.
A pure and honest formula: Passion + creativity + dedication + integrity + compassion + teamwork x pure grit.
The result? Mission-based success.
Support for Adopt-A-Class EMPLOYS and RETAINS our talented team through mission-driven work.
Lessons Learned
re·sil·ience /rəˈzilyəns/ Our Lessons Learned • Focus on what you can do.
• Stay on mission.
• Ask for what you need, not more, when you need it.
• Use your advantages to advantage others.
• Communicate with and care for those who care for you.
• Allow change to make you grow.
• Translate your gratitude into action
• Never ever give up.
Ocean Institute Our mission prevails.
Celebrate.
Support. Join. Donate: https://oceaninstitute.org/annual-fund/