Volunteer with CADS

Our lesson nights are generally Sunday evening with the final lesson on a Saturday night in early March. Lessons are designed to run for 2 hours with your student during the 3-hour window that WinSport is running the lifts from 6-9 pm. Generally, the student and instructors work out what start time works best for them. For some of our younger students like to start at 6 pm to be finished by 8 pm and ready for school on Monday morning.

CADS Calgary is recognized as being one of the largest single location CADS programs in Canada with 150-170 students each year.

At CADS Calgary, we strive for 2 instructors per student.  With 150-170 students, this means we need to have 350+ volunteers instructing each year.  In addition, we have experienced Supervisors in each group assisting the volunteers.  This brings the total number of volunteers we require to approximately 400, in order to avoid having to turn students away.

Our program runs 8 lesson nights on Sundays, starting in early January. The first lesson can often be affected by the day of the week that January 1^st falls and when normal school classes resume.

Generally, the first 7 lessons are held on Sunday nights in January and February, with the exception that there is not a lesson on the Family Day long weekend in February (roughly the 3^rd Monday in February).

The final lesson night has been held on a Saturday night for the last few years and coincides with the “Friends & Family” night where parents, siblings and friends are encouraged to join our students on the hill.

Thursday nights are for “Skills Improvement” and run from December to the end of February. These nights are optional, but an excellent opportunity to learn a new technique to help guide your student more effectively.  In some cases, you may be able to see what it is like in one of the other groups, such as sit-ski, or how you can use out-riggers to help you ski with only a single ski.

Friday nights in December should be considered mandatory for all new Instructors to prepare for teaching their students.

The primary importance is continuity for the students. However, CADS recognizes that our volunteers have other commitments, eg. travel for work, and they may need to miss a lesson night occasionally. 

Thursday nights are optional, but provide an excellent opportunity to learn new skills, either how to teach for the adaptive requirements of your group or improve your own proficiency.

Friday nights in December are specifically designed to prepare volunteers within the discipline you will be working with. New volunteers find these sessions extremely valuable for gaining confidence before the first lesson night in January.

A Volunteer Registration fee of $50 is required to cover the cost of your Registration and Insurance with the National organization.

All lift tickets for CADS events, ie. Lesson, Training, Instructing on the Mountain trip will be covered by CADS.

If you require rentals, you will be responsible for covering this cost.

We are always looking for new volunteers to ensure we don’t have to turn students away.  Registration for Volunteers is available on-line starting in September and in-person Registration is generally the last Saturday in September.  Volunteers can also register at the Student Registration, close to the end of October.

We hold an Orientation evening at WinSport in mid-November to give an overview and provide an opportunity to ask questions and get to know some of our other volunteers.

New Volunteer Orientation, on the snow, is generally the last Saturday in November and then the following week on Sunday. New volunteers are asked to attend one, but not both of these days and then respond to a small survey asking their top 3 picks for groups to work in.

Volunteers are placed according to student need as the first priority, but we also make a strong effort to match our volunteers with their most desired group.

We have had volunteers join us midway through the lesson program where they can be used as a ‘helper’ where needed in various groups.

Yes, all volunteers are required to request a Police Check for “working directly with the disabled and with children/minors”, often referred to as the Vulnerable Sector. Once the check has been completed a copy of the resulting letter must be forwarded to CADS to complete your Registration.

A Police Check is required every 5 years.

Certification with the professional organization is not required.  CADS provides training for instructors to help them with different adaptive requirements.  Also, on Thursday evenings CADS offers personal boarding/skiing improvement on Thursday evenings, 7-9 pm.

Definitely, volunteers need to be able to ski comfortably on green runs and utilize the chair lift.

Yes, we do have some positions available to volunteer with CADS. For example, helping to organize the Gala, assisting with Registration for Students and Volunteers, helping to Check-in volunteers and give out lift passes.

Youth are designated as being under 16 years of age and therefore cannot work alone with a student.  However, in almost all cases, instructors work in pairs and arrangements may be made with a Supervisor to pair up a Youth volunteer with an older Instructor.

This is a common concern with our new volunteers and we take the education of our volunteers very seriously. Therefore we offer initial training on Friday nights in December and the opportunity for ongoing training on Thursday nights throughout the season.

Every effort is made to pair a new instructor with an experienced instructor.