The CHYS Mentoring Program
A Path to the Future
for Young Sailors
The CHYS Board recognizes that for most sailing programs and most parents, the initial few summer sailing camps that their child (8 to 12 y/o) will attend are inexpensive babysitting services that provide a sailing "experience." Many of these kids drop out of sailing at between 10 and 12 years old. The CHYS Summer Sailing Camp Late Registration Fee ($250) “baby sitting” / “Experiential Sailing” cost is only $6.66 per hour. A very reasonable cost for taking care of your "little devils."
A number of these kids get "hooked on sailing" and go on to enjoy our sport at higher and more technical levels by attending our Intermediate and Advanced Summer Camps, Saturday School Year Program, and Spring Break Sailing Camps. A subset of these young sailors at 14 or 15 y/o, based on their emotional maturity, sailing skills and interest, become volunteer Mentors (classified as "Instructor Assistants") earning Community Service Hours. At age 16, a few Mentors move on to attend US Sailing Instructor training and with this national certification, become paid “Level One Assistant Instructors”. For our kids and families dedicated to the CHYS programs, we offer tuition reimbursement for the US Sailing Instructor Training program. At age 18 US Sailing certified Assistant Instructors may continue as full Instructors. Our certified instructors are paid an hourly wage. CHYS contracts for payroll/employee management with an arm’s length independent company.
Jordan Hand followed this track. At 18 y/o he went directly from home schooling into the workforce. He is an entrepreneur now owning his own business, "Hand Power Washing." Jordan is also now the CHYS Head Instructor. Michael Bouhebent and Dita Carlsen are following the track and now, at 18 y/o, Michael is a full "Instructor." They are following the College Track and will be on their Collegiate Sailing Clubs. Our past instructors, Hazen Williams, Kayla McColloch, and Danny O'Leary followed this path. They added Community Service Hours to their college application resumes and are now in college, and members of their collegiate sailing programs.
Dita Carlsen came up through this program. She paid the registration fee for some Camps and Mentored in others. For her Mentoring time, she received Community Service Hours toward graduation and for logging volunteer hours on her college application resumes. In March of 2022 at age 15, she completed her US Sailing Level One Instructor Training at the Edison Sailing Association training session. Qualified sailors can take the Instructor Course in the year they turn 16. Her 16th birthday was on June 17, 2022. At 16, Dita qualified as a CHYS paid instructor. Her first year as an Assistant Instructor started mid-summer 2022. Dita is now an Assistant Instructor.
Several of our young members are particularly good sailors and mature for their age. I am hoping that in the future a few will become our instructors. The path to that goal is through regular participation/registrations in our Summer Sailing Camps, Saturday School Year Program (SYP) and Mentoring Program.
Mentors are 14 to 17 years old and have been with our program for enough years to make them Advanced Sailors. Advanced sailors in this age group that have maturity, communication skills and register for one of the intermediate or advanced summer sailing camps, are offered the opportunity to Mentor, with no registration fee, at any Beginner Sailing Camp. They are expected to register and pay for several intermediate or advanced summer sailing camps. This is a "buy one, get one" program.
Mentoring is not simply a free play-time sail week as a bonus for paying a registration fee at an Intermediate/Advanced Sailing Camp. The mentoring volunteer advanced sailor is expected to teach and coach the younger kids. CHYS is a 501(c)(3) not for profit youth program but, as Sister Thiophane (Administrator at Trinity Hospital in Milwaukee) would say, "No margin, no mission." Hence the mentoring required payment for the registration fee for at least one sailing camp per mentoring beginner camp. CHYS has significant expenses. The biggest expenses include:
* Instructor wages
* Program Insurance
* Volunteer Board of Directors "Errors and Omissions" insurance
* Coach boats' fuel/maintenance
* Sailboat fleet equipment repair/refit/replacement
There are several basic qualifications for becoming a CHYS Mentor.
1. Mentors volunteering at a sailing camp must provide a needed service to both the CHYS
youth sailing program and the kids attending the session (more one-on-one
coaching/teaching).
2. Mentors have a history of participation for several years in several CHYS Summer Camps
per year and the Saturday School Year Program (SYP).
3. Mentors Demonstrated and are Certified in Advanced Sailing Skills.
4. Mentors demonstrate exceptional maturity and emotional stability for age and peer group
(Usually by age 14 - first year of high school).
5. Mentors are 14 to 17 years old (related more to expected maturity than an absolute
age restriction).
6. Mentoring is limited to Summer Beginner Sailing Camps.
In general, many of our home-schooled kids demonstrate an advanced level of maturity and responsibility relative to their peer group. Some public and private school students achieve the same level of maturity. A “special case” mentoring authorization would be justified at age 13 for the more mature/responsible kids in these population subsets. If a young but emotionally mature sailor is all in for the track to “Sailing Instructor” described and has had several summers registered in intermediate and advanced sailing camps, volunteering as mentor for Beginner Sailing Camps, she or he could be approved by the CHYS Board to be a mentor for the program.
The mentor is required to register for several Intermediate/Advanced Summer Sailing Camps each year and participate regularly in the CHYS Saturday Advanced/Adventure program. For their volunteer time, mentors receive Community Service Hours. These hours are required for graduation is some school districts and augment any college application resume. If your child has any interest in water sports, the path described above is possible. Register her/him in a beginner camp to determine if sailing is for them. If your child has some sailing experience, consider registering her/him for several of the four "Intermediate" or "Advanced" 2022 camps this summer (#4, #5, #8 and #9). A lifetime of sailing enjoyment shall follow. Supporting your kid on this track is an investment in your child’s future.
What is the cost?
CHYS offers nine (9) summer sailing camps in 2022, five (5) sessions before the 4th of July week break and four (4) sessions after. Each session starts with several beginner sailing camps, ending with intermediate and advanced programs. The early bird registration fee for these camps starts at $175 with siblings and additional camp discounts of $25. Camp registration fee increases by $25 every several weeks until the final, Late Registration Fee of $250 is reached. The cost for "Early Bird" registering in four summer camps would be:
$175 + ($150 x 3) = $625
The "Late Registration Fee" for these advanced camps is $250 x 4 = $1,000.
Registration through “Active Kids” is online:
Once a child achieves “Mentor” status, she/he can attend all nine summer camps, four as paid registrations and 5 as a Mentor earning Community Service Hours. Your child could sail all summer for $625 four camp fees. Late Registration for the nine summer camps would cost $2,250. If your child follows the track and becomes a certified Assistant Sailing Instructor, she/he could have a paid summer job teaching sailing at CHYS during the last summers of high school and beyond during their college summer breaks.
Registration for Summer Sailing Camps is now open. Sign up now to take advantage of the Early Bird, additional camp and sibling pricing before the costs increase. Click below to download this information.
