HAVING READ last week’s article on the free pass
Cypress Bowl, I thought it might be an idea to look into it
a little better and find out wnat it was really ail about.

First, it seems to me that there
is in fact quite a stark difference
between selflessly volunteering
your time for a worthy cause —
giving of yourself for no material
gain, and the opportunity Cypress

Bowl! is offering to innocent young

people,

This is not volunteerism, it is
capitalism at its best and, whether
they would like to hear it or not,
the people signing up for the pro-
gram are being taken lock, stock
and barrel by the management of
Cypress Bowl.

If a person works eight hours a
week for the duration of the ski
season, say, 15 weeks at minimum
wage, they would make approxi-
mately $660. What Cypress Bowl
is offering is a ski pass worth no
more than $250.

This means that Cypress Bowl is
offering the kids who sign up for
this slave-labor opportunity a
whopping $2.08 per hour. Wow!

Then what about the cost to the

. kids to get up to Cypress in the

‘first place? And meals once you're

working there at inhuman wages?
This merely shows the level to
which some companies will stoop
to turn a profit and to keep their
spending down. The victims of
this corporate master plan, if you
will, are the. young people of
North and West Vancouver who

motive, says Cypress

CYPRESS BOWL hopes
to provide training in the
tourism field to create a
pool of future employees,
said personnel manager
Bob Dodge.
Through their Youth WEST
work experience program, high
school students are being
trained to do a.variety of jobs
on the mountain, and = are
receiving specialized «raining
that includes ski rental work,

binding, and first aid, as well .

as the provincially recognized
SuperHost tourism program
and a Level I ski instructor’s
course, he said.

In the program's first year
(compieted in the spring), stu-
dents were required to work
one day every two weeks (some
worked more often by choice.

The program will be broad-
ened next season to include ex-
perience in a variety of
departments at Cypress and,
hopefully, to provide more
in-depth training for students

‘wanting to return to the pro-
gram.

Cypress is also working with
the school boards in the hope
of having students receive
credits for the work they are
doing on the mountain — a
few of the West Vancouver
secondary. school students
worked on a credit basis last
year, but they would like to
open it up to students across
the North Shore, explained
Dodge.

Students also receive a
season’s ski pass for their par-
ticipation, but Dodge doesn’t
see that as being the only worth
of the program.

“ didn’t get any feedback
from the students that way.’’

Looking at the time com-
mitted compared to the value
of the ski pass, students might

. have been better off with ‘a

> ByPamelaLang <
> ZAP! Writer <

part-time job, he said, adding
that Cypress does not provide
training this extensive to part-
time employees, and high
schoo! students often cannot
commit to the minimum of two
days per week that are required
for part-time employment on
the mountain,

Cypress sees Youth WEST as
being similar to the work expe-
rience programs offered
through. the schools with the
ski pass thrown in as a fringe
benefit — ‘‘not compensation
for the work,”’ said Dodge.

“We don’t want students
doing this just for the pass,”
he said, pointing out that with
a full-time employee hired to
supervise the 90 students that
participated last season, and
with Cypress paying outside
professionals to conduct some
of the training courses, the
program cost them $20,000 for
1992/93.

“The perception is that the
motive is free labor, but we
could hire college students for
less.”’

Cypress is developing the
Youth WEST program to
establish a talent pool of peo-
ple interested in the industry
who might become part-time,
full-time, or Jong-term
employees.

They also believe that this
program offers something to
the community in terms of
training in the tourism in-
dustry. Dodge said they had
been approached to take
work-experience placements
from some of the schools, but
that they don't want to limit
the program to students who
are doing it through a high
school work-experience pro-
gram.

sign up without really under-
standing the consequences,

it’s about time this was brought
up, because it could save a few
people some time, energy and ex-
pense.

They might turn around and
point to the training one receives
if one signs up, and at no charge
to the participant. Yet, in reality,
most employers from McDonald’s
to corner stores train their
employees on the job, and all this
while the employee is getting paid.

That's also something to think
about.

if the people at Cypress Bowl
were really committed to helping
out the youth, especially in this
tough economic time, they would
create some more job openings, or
have these volunteer positions as
paid ones and then offer the peo-
ple involved a ski pass at a dis-
counted rate.

This way, the youths involved
would be able to gain some cash
that could help with post-secon-
dary education or even Starting up
their own businesses. The other
benefit of this, and I feel very
strongly about this, is that the

SUMMER HAS _ finally brought

some

warmer weather, and with il come visitors
from around the world who take advantage
of our climate, our parks, and our tourist
attractions, What appeals to you about the
North Shore? If you were a visitor, what
do you think would impress you about the

North Shore?

4&4 Volunteering one’s time is not

working for personal gain .

young people involved would not
be conned into slave labor and
convinced that what they were
doing was voluntecring their time
to a worthy cause.

1f that doesn’t happen, it could
open the floodgates for many
other companies to try offering
this sort of life experience. The
only life experience involved in the
Cypress program is that if you
don’t watch your back, you can be
conned into anything by any com-
gany or group offering what looks
like a good deal.

Which brings me to my next
point which is directly related to
this concept of volunteerism, and .
what that really means in the rea!
world. Volunteering one’s time is

a4

not working for personal gain, or
anything raaterialistic like a ski
pass.

It should not be something that
someone does because he or she
wants some recognition. it is a
chance to work for an organiza-
tion or a group that will benefit
from unconditional help and
cominitment £o making the lives
of others better.

The reward that one gets is
perhaps something to which a lot
of us aren’t attaching great value
or regard — the feeling of having
achieved something and the
satisfaction of having helped
someone else out.

Maybe it’s time that meant
something again.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

THE AMBLESIDE Adventure Playground in West Vancouver is the new home of two huge tree
forts built by industricus seven. to 12-year-olds. One of the workers is seen here adding a little
color to one of the forts. Activities continue all summer tong. Call the West Vancouver recre-
ation centre at 926-3266 for more information.

Still possible to find summer ‘obs

WITH MUCH attention focused
on the high unemployment rates
and lack of student jobs this
summer, it would seem surprising
that any students are finding
work,

The many Canada Employment
Centres for Students (CEC-S)
have been involved in the com-
munity for the past 25 years with
the philosophy of ‘‘students help-
ing students find work."’ They
began helping students in 1968,
and so far, 1993 is looking quite
good for students in British Col-
umbia.

Bur it’s not casy finding work.
In fact, full- and part-time jobs
are becoming somewhat of a lux-
ury — though they are certainly
far from impossible.

Over 10,000 students found
work through the various CEC-S
in Greater Vancouver in 1992.
These figures include all positions
lasting anywhere from an hour to
the entire summer.

To date, 5,783 students in the
Greater Vancouver Area and
Fraser Valley have found work.
To the end of June 1993, 15,279
student’ jobs had been placed
through CEC-S across the B.C.-
Yukon region. This figure is up
slightly from 1992 when 26,228
students found work through the
CEC-Ss for the entire summer.

One-of the most popular ser-
vices of the CEC-S is casual
labor. Students who want short-
term employment (lasting under 10
days) register with individual of-

fices and have the option of
working when they are available.
Employers can hire students for
any length of time to fill. almost
every position — from teaching
swimming Jessons in the back yard
to doing laundry or heavy con-
struction.

So even though the difficulty of
finding summer work is obviously
far from over for many B.C.
youth, students who are willing to

‘take the time and effort to check

the CEC-S job boards regularly
and/or . register with the casual
labor departments often find
themselves employed (on a con-
tinual basis.

For more information, call the
North Shore CEC-S at 666-9192,