2024/2025 Winter Volunteer Opportunities
The winter program is made possible by the efforts of our many volunteers! Program participants pay a volunteer deposit and are responsible for 6 or 12 volunteer hours (depending on the amount of equipment rented). During equipment returns, at the end of the season, families that completed their volunteer hours are eligible to get their volunteer deposit back. If you do not get your volunteer hours done, that’s OK but you will forfeit your deposit for the year, you will be in the later group for equipment fittings in the next year, and likely will not be able to get a scholarship in the following winter. This volunteer system allows us to keep our program prices affordable.
Families that sign up and get their volunteer hours earlier in the season usually do not have any issues getting their hours in. However, if you wait until the end of the season it can be really difficult to complete your volunteer commitment.
If you have a work schedule or life circumstances that prevents you from completing your volunteer commitment please email sam@chesterbowl.org to see if there are any other ways that you can complete your volunteer hours outside of the opportunities listed on this page. We are happy to work with you!
Current Volunteer Opportunities
Fall Fest- Our biggest special event of the year was on September 21. Thank you to everyone who helped out!
Hill Cleanup Day- Join us 9am-noon, Saturday, October 26 to help us remove get the hill ready for snowmaking. We need volunteers to bring tools like weed-whips, loppers, and other gear to help remove branches, brush and other debris from the hill. We will also be removing buckthorn from the park and building a new race house this year. Follow this link to get signed up!
Equipment Fitting Nights- We have season rentals of up to 1200 pairs of skis and 200 snowboards. To facilitate this process, we need about a dozen volunteers at each of our fitting nights, held weeknights towards the end of October through mid-November. Click here to get signed up!
Snowmaking- We utilize volunteers to help us keep an eye on our snowmaking equipment. Volunteers work alongside paid staff to make sure the snowmakers are working properly and that park users are staying clear of them. Volunteers will be hiking up the hill once an hour and are required to be 18 years old or older due to the nature of this role. Shifts are just over 4 hours at a time and are weekends, evenings, and overnights. Follow this link to register as a volunteer snowmaker. Once temps are low enough for snowmaking, we will send a sign-up out to the folks who have registered. If you have questions about snowmaking you can check out our Snowmaking 101 document here.
Concession Stand Volunteers– We continue to have both our indoor and outdoor concessions stands available. Volunteers will use Signup Genius to pick the location and task they would like to do. Volunteers outside will be selling lift tickets and pre-packaged food while the volunteers indoors will be preparing and selling hot food in addition to monitoring the indoor space for cleanliness and appropriate behavior. Here is the link to get signed up!
Alpine Race Series- The Chester Bowl Alpine Race Series is a great way for kids to learn basic racing skills and have an awesome time doing it. It’s a super fun event and relies on many volunteers to pull off each race. Races are on Sundays starting in February and go into March. Here is the link to get signed up!
Speaking of the Alpine Race Series, we are in search of two key volunteers to help us run the races. You don’t have to come to every race but you would be agreeing to complete 40 volunteer hours this winter in exchange for getting early gear fittings and the chance to register for summer camp ahead of the general public. Check out the volunteer description here. If you are interested in this opportunity email sam@chesterbowl.org today!
Winter Carnival– Each year we throw a winter carnival at Chester. This year’s event is on Saturday, February 22, 1-4pm. We have games, rides, and other activities available for kids to take part in and we need parents to help. Follow this link to sign up to volunteer!
Freestyle Fridays- Terrain parks can be intimidating for people but we have a super fun event series designed to teach people to use terrain park features safely while introducing them to freestyle competitions. Volunteers help with registration as well as event setup. Sign up to volunteer here!
Terrain Park Maintenance- Even though we have several Terrain Park Coordinators and Cadets who help setup and maintain the terrain park it’s so much work that we need additional volunteer support! Throughout the season we will have “terrain park reset” volunteer opportunities where folks can help us take out terrain park features and store them so the groomer can reshape the snow. Then we will have another night where we will put in the new features and build jumps. These opportunities happen on a regular basis and we will post links here when we are ready for volunteers to sign up.
Equipment Return Volunteers- Equipment returns are April 7-9, 5:30-9pm and during the course of these three nights we will collect over 1200 sets of skis and all of our snowboard equipment. We need many volunteers to pull this off. Look for a link here in Spring 2025.