A Typical Day for Support Staff
Learn more about the Cheley Experience as a support staff.
Each day at Cheley is unique and wonderful, so it would be almost impossible to specify every Day-in-the-Life variation. You will notice, however, that the Cheley Experience follows routine: one that repeats both First Term and Second Term. Each term begins with Arrival Day and Orientation Day, and ends with Final Weekend and Departure Day.
Rather than touring the day of each position or team, we’ll give you an overview of camp life for support staff. Waking up when your position requires (which is often earlier for our food services team, laundry, barn crew, and others), breakfast is at 7:30AM in both of our dining halls. Support staff sits separately from our units as they typically finish up faster to get started with their day. That’s not to say, you can’t sit somewhere else: you are more than welcome to join a unit’s table!
Put simply, both your morning and afternoon will be spent in your area, whether that’s gathering content if you’re part of the media team, facilitating a program with counselors to help if you’re a program coordinator, running the Camp Store if you’re a camp store manager, gathering mail or answering the phones if you’re in the office, saddling and grooming our horses if you’re on barn crew, driving to the Outpost if you’re on CheDOT, or another duty specific to your position. Support staff most often work independently in their own area under the direction of their supervisor.
As your morning winds down, we have lunch at noon and after, most of our support staff are able to take a rest hour. This is a time for relaxation in your cabin or around camp where you can write, nap, read, and play cards or other games. This is also a great time for you too to catch your breath! Following rest hour, you will likely jump right back into your duties for the day. If you’re on program, however, you’ll start around 2:00PM with your afternoon program group as units end rest hour around 1:45PM. Program then ends around 4:15PM. Many support staff afternoons begin to relax around 5:00PM as camp and unit life moves into free time; nevertheless, some positions work later than others depending on your job’s responsibilities. Dinner for all is at 6:00PM again in the dining hall unless we have a Thursday or Sunday night cookout.
Due to the nature of being on support staff and not living with campers, most have free time and are off in the evenings. Some nights do require different support staff positions to stay later. Because support staff don’t have an assigned unit, you are free to join a campfire – evening program – with any unit assuming you’ve received permission from the campfire counselor and/or directing staff. And trust us, the campers love to see you at campfires! We also offer various support staff campfires (like a cookout at Rockstock, drive up Trail Ridge, or horseback ride) throughout the summer for you to partake in. To end the night, we have Friendship Circle where we sing the support staff song and taps, and then it’s off to bed.
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What does it take? A sense of adventure, a desire to be with people, and leadership skills.