Do you love skiing in the Green Mountain State? Do you want to help promote backcountry opportunities all across Vermont, ranging from nordic ski tours deep in the woods to steep powder skiing at gladed areas? Do you want to get dirty clearing trails, layer up to ski fresh snow on winter mornings, carry lots and lots of ski equipment around, and learn all about the yearly cycle of an outdoor nonprofit? Most of all, do you want to get more kids out on skis and help them enjoy all that Vermont winters have to offer? If so, read more below — and consider applying to be the CTA’s next Youth Programs and Outreach Coordinator, a position sponsored by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board Americorps program.
As an Americorps member with CTA, the biggest task for your 2019-2020 year would be youth nordic ski programs, specifically our Ski Cubs program that runs every January and February. Last year, we had over 200 skiers as part of Ski Cubs, including a weekend program at Bolton Valley, weekday programs at area schools, and “incubator” programs all over Vermont. You, the Americorps member, would be responsible for developing curriculum, recruiting volunteers, organizing equipment, and going out to have fun skiing with Chittenden County youth 4 days a week during the winter months. If you like finding ways to teach outdoor skills to young people, talking enthusiastically with groups of kids from New American communities why they should learn to nordic ski, watching the weather like a hawk, lugging equipment hither and yon, and giving lots of high-fives at the end of the day, you would LOVE leading the Ski Cubs program.
When not working to promote and organize Ski Cubs, bringing the program to area schools, or helping kids out of a powdery snow-bank at the end of their first long downhill, the Americorps member has plenty of other projects going on. In the fall, you will help clear trails and cut glades across the state, learning about neat sub-ranges and interesting corners of Vermont all the way from Readsboro to Jay. You will sit behind the CTA table at area ski events and movie premieres, answering questions and telling the public about the Catamount Trail. You will get to know the dedicated crew of volunteers who make the CTA what it is. After the snow has melted away in the spring, planning for 2020’s trail work outings will begin, along with outreach to local businesses who support the CTA, helping to write grants for the next year’s Ski Cubs program, and coordinating volunteers for events such as the Race to the Top of Vermont.
I came to the CTA after many years as a nordic-ski tourer, free-heeling backcountry enthusiast, and tight-pants-wearing rando racer, but I had never taught kids how to ski or spent long hours clearing remote trails. What’s great about an Americorps position is that experience, for the most part, is less important than enthusiasm: my coworkers at CTA did an awesome job teaching me what I didn’t know, pointing me in the right directions, and letting me have the autonomy to try out what I thought might work. My best memories of the past 2 years with CTA are all about the learning process which evolved over months of going out on trails and skis to figure out how best to engage Vermonters with the CTA and its mission. Whether it was watching an eight-year-old who had never skied before master their first snowplow, helping a CTA event go off without a hitch, or putting together a plan to clear a problem tree from a section of the Catamount Trail, I’m coming away from the past two years with so many good memories of the projects I was involved in.
If you’re interested in being part of a great nonprofit in a yearlong position, look around the CTA website for more information, and feel free to get in touch with me, or with our executive director, Matt Williams, who doubles as the site supervisor for the Americorps role. For more nitty-gritty details: Click here to view the Youth Programs and Outreach position description, and here to apply for the position through the Americorps platform. Applications are due August 2nd, and Americorps members will likely come on board in early-mid September to begin their term. We look forward to hearing from you!
Cheers,
Scott Berkley — Americorps member 2017-2019
The Outreach and Youth Programs position at CTA is part of the VHCB-Americorps program.
