Save Lucy Committee Executive Director Rich Helfant says the area's most famous pachyderm needs $10,000 to fix a seven-year-old climate control system, the breakdown of which canceled the annual Valentine's Day dinner. Photo by: Edward Lea
MARGATE – It’s a tough environment for an elephant. Even a wooden one. Well, especially a wooden one that’s 127-years-old. Just ask Rich Helfant, the executive director, CEO and all-around keeper of Lucy.
The outsized pachyderm by the sea, closed for the season, is suffering a host of problems that the Save Lucy Committee is attempting to patch and repair before the summertime crowds come back to her howdah, the seat strapped atop her. In all, he said, it will cost about $50,000 to fix the problems.
But at the same time, the nonprofit that maintains the national monument faces some of the same problems others have with tighter money.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported last year that the recession has meant that charities lost a collective $46.6 billion since 2007. It also reported that a survey last month found that one-third expected 2009’s donations to be at least 10 percent less than the previous year.
The tax returns of the Save Lucy Committee show it received $57,329 in contributions and grants in 2008, 13 percent less than the $65,951 it received in 2004.
And while the attraction is at no risk of closing, the returns show the committee’s total assets have shrunk by 34.5 percent, from $134,069 in 2004 to $87,791 in 2008.
This comes even as the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority has prominently displayed Lucy in marketing materials and committee members have traveled to conventions and other events to promote it and buy different elephant-themed items.
“We do a lot of things to market Lucy,” said Scott R. Blackman, a previous president of Save Lucy.
The problems started in the summer, Helfant said. The roof on the elephant’s howdah began to leak. The roof was only four years old, but it was never designed for the wear inflicted by the 33,000 people who last year climbed up through the tight stairways to stand on her back and take in the view. The stainless steel plates will have to be replaced and covered with protective rubber, at a cost of $15,000.
Things got worse after a Sept. 9 wedding. A tent was erected, and Helfant said they figured they would keep it up for an event just three days later.
A freakish storm Sept. 11 uprooted the tent and thrashed the backside of the defenseless elephant, denting and scraping its tin skin and breaking the tail.
The tail remains bandaged in white cloth and red tape, propped up by scaffolding.
“The scaffolding is there to keep the tail from falling on someone,” Helfant said. The damaged skin has to be replaced, and the tail rebuilt from the inside out. “I’d like to make it motorized so it wags, but people from the historical trust might not have the same sense of humor as I do.”
It will cost about $65,000, but insurance will pick up all but the $25,000 deductible.
Most recently, the Save Lucy Committee had to cancel its scheduled Valentine’s Dinner because of problems with the climate-control software that is supposed to adjust every 15 seconds to keep the inside of the elephant heated, cooled and dry.
But with what he called “the antiquated, garbage system,” he couldn’t guarantee it would be warm enough for the couples. Even so, Helfant said the unreliable controller meant the elephant racked up a $1,787 electric bill last month.
But, he said, replacing the controller will cost about $10,000.
The computer controls three electric heat pumps and two 5 kilowatt heaters that keep conditions in the winter at 68 degrees when occupied and 58 when empty.
At about $300 per couple, Helfant said the Save Lucy Committee raised about $5,000 after expenses last year, and with the kinks worked out was on track to raise even more.
Helfant said they would host another event in the summer, when the crowds and more temperate weather would make for a better event.
In all, Helfant said it is not a particularly high repair bill for the 127-year-old landmark, but it comes at a difficult time.
“It’s just the nature of the beast,” he said.