Information Age Learning Center

PART III, LINE 1A:

“Wow!! What a year!! Who expected anything like this?? We have never experienced anything like the impact this virus has had on our everyday lives, our jobs, and the economy of our country and the world. It has been pretty devastating. The roller coaster ride of 2020 is over and it has had a profound impact on infoage. In spite of the covid 19 virus that has caused other museums and learning centers to close, infoage not only survived but remains open and vibrant!! In the past, infoage received much of its funding from school trips and senior citizen and group tours. Our visitors learned of new jersey's rich history in the development of communications and information technology from edison, sarnoff, armstrong, and marconi up to the present day. In addition, many faith based volunteer groups were housed in the infoage volunteer housing and retreat center supporting the saint bernard project in its continuing mission of rebuilding the new jersey shore after superstorm sandy. Initially, we had to close through the end of may with an estimated loss of income of almost $35,000 due to the cancellation of scheduled tours and volunteer visits. However, with the continued closure imposed by the state of new jersey, additional tours and events, our wall of honor reception, an inventor's summer camp, etc. Had to be cancelled. By the time we opened on august 1, our lost funding was over $87,000. We attempted to overcome some of this loss by applying for financial assistance from the u.s. Small business administration (sba) economic injury disaster loan program and grant and loan programs available through the nj economic development authority and the monmouth county cares economic grant assistance program. We also applied to the ocean first foundation for their good neighbor grant. Our finance committee undertook cost cutting measures and came up with several other avenues to obtain funding. Our board members, volunteers and member organizations also contributed over $17,000 to help offset the loss of funding. As a result of our grant applications, we received a $3,000 federal grant and a $20,000 monmouth county grant. We continue to apply for covid relief grants to include in the 2021 ppp phase ii grant. To continue our mission, we modified our business model to include virtual and live on-line presentations. Infoage now has its own zoom account. We have conducted several beta tests with presentations to students at rensselaer polytechnic institute and yale air force rotc students. Our summer "space exploration week and our "space flight "lecture series were successfully conducted virtually. We did a face book live presentation of our vintage computer federation (vcf) museum which is now available on the new jersey school board association face book page. In addition, the vcf conducted their vcf-east conference in october. The conference was done virtually with a combination of pre-recorded and live exhibit demonstrations, interviews and "how to" classes. We are continually working on how to reach our visitors through video and virtual means until they can once again come to our campus. Here are some other significant accomplishments that happened in 2020 in spite of the covid-19 virus: " we reached out to help our community with the donation of over 2,000 n95 respirator masks to several area hospitals, local emergency workers and responders. " our brochures, tour guide and our other printed media were revised and reprinted to provide continuity, consistency and uniformity of message. " the infoage website continues to be developed to focus on highlighting our unique strengths and identifying what things makes infoage stand out from the competition. " we developed and implemented a covid-19 plan to protect our volunteers, docents, staff and visitors in accordance with cdc guidelines that was in place for our august 1 reopening. " the discovery channel show "billy buys brooklyn" visited infoage in december and filmed both the isec (infoag”