Our Summer Workamping in New York for Sun Outdoors

We spent the summer of 2022 workamping in New York on Lake Ontario. Association Island Sun Outdoors is a corporate-owned campground resort. RV sites, tent sites, cabins, motel rooms, and marina boat slips. The island is accessible by driving across a causeway and by boat. The campground has many amenities for guests, including a restaurant with pizza and ice cream, and rentals (golf carts, kayaks, and boats).

CAMPGROUND      Sun Outdoors Association Island

COMPANY               Sun Outdoors

LOCATION              Henderson, New York on Lake Ontario

OUR JOB TITLES  
Maintenance (JW) working as part of the maintenance team and sole maintenance most weekends. Assisting with general maintenance at campsites, motel rooms, and cottages.  Maintain, monitored, and maintained water plant and wastewater treatment plant. Assist with cleaning and maintaining the guest pool.  Back up rangers as needed with guest services, ice, and firewood deliveries, escorting campers to sites, and cleaning campsites.

Guest Services Coordinator (Cory) working as a team at the front desk, Welcome Center. Daily duties included opening or closing the Welcome Center, assisting guests with reservations, and checking in and out of the campground. Answered phones, assisted guests with questions about the campground and surrounding area, issued visitor passes, and other duties as necessary. Camp store sales and daily rentals included golf carts, kayaks, and boats.  As needed towards the end of the season, I also assisted in the restaurant with cooking, guest services, and scooping ice cream.

Other available positions include ranger, housekeeping, security, and activities.

EMPLOYEES

We worked with several seasonal workers, workampers, and a few year-round employees.  Included us, we had five workamping couples and three single workampers. All workampers lived onsite in their personal campers. The GM lives on the property.

PAY/HOURS

$16 per hour with all hours paid  (minimum wage is $13.20 per hour)

32 hours per week – 4 days on 3 days off.  Our days off were consecutive (this was not the case for all employees.) We worked the same days on with the same schedule. We requested the same days and hours upfront, as this is important to us.

A bonus program was advertised, and we were told we did not qualify. However, we each received a bonus on our last checks $250.00.

TIME COMMITMENT

We arrived the last weekend in April and left in mid-September. We started on May 10^th and our last day of work was September 13^th. The campground is open end of April until the last day in October (for the 2022 season).  I believe all workampers were gone by the end of September.

RV SITE

Our RV site was provided at a discounted Workamper rate of $20 per day. We picked our site from a list of available sites. These sites averaged $57-$65 a night for daily rental. Our RV site was nice and while not waterfront, we did have a view of the lake more often than not. We had a big grass area, which we were required to maintain, including mowing the grass. Our site included water, electric, and sewer. WIFI is included but we did not utilize it (we have our own WIFI).

They charge for your site from the first day of employment until the last day of employment. Management is flexible and had no issues with us arriving 2 weeks early (we had plans in the area) and you can stay a few days after with no additional fees. The site rental is paid directly to the campground and is not deducted from your paycheck.

WIFI / CELL SERVICE

The campground offers a third-party free Wi-Fi service with a paid option. While we did not utilize the Wi-Fi, the guest did complain that it was not reliable.

We have T-Mobile for both cell phones and our RV Wi-Fi.  We had great service with an average of three bars. I was able to use my computer and stream TV. JW did occasionally use it for gaming.  We did not have any phone issues. We also have AT&T in our Chevy Truck and never had any service issues.

EMPLOYEE PERKS

The biggest perks at this campground were discounted site fees and a generous discount on the camp store ($0.45 sodas for employees.) This discount also applies to ice and food at the restaurant. Use of the housekeeping laundry is free. Sun Outdoors advertises their Destination Team Members receive many discounts including, a welcome kit, discounted site fees, bonuses, discounts at other Sun Outdoors, professional development, and free Wi-Fi.  Sun Outdoors website

You can also find information on Workamper.com.

We did receive a welcome package about a month after starting our jobs.  We each received a backpack with a Team Destination logo. Inside the pack was a few logoed promo items and a coffee cup with a Sun Outdoors logo.  While it was a nice offer, we donated our items to the local school. I do think they should have something different for workampers. We live in a small space and heavy bulky items are not necessary or practical.

When I reached out to Sun Outdoors human resources (corporate, not at our campground) about the above-listed perks, I received an email that the advertisement on Workamper did not apply to our location and varied per management.  I asked management and our site uses a program created by the Regional Manager and therefore, those perks do not apply.

As for discounts at other locations, you are terminated when you leave, so you would no longer qualify for discounts. They do have programs for working different seasons at different locations, I would reach out if this is something you are interested in.

CAMPGROUND AMENITIES

Association Island offers many amenities to its guests. You can rent a pontoon boat, golf carts, kayaks, and peddle carts. 60+ site private marina for a daily rental fee with a gas pump for non-vehicle gas purchases. Bathhouses, laundry, ice cream shop, snack shop with a few hot items, including pizza. Propane, firewood, and ice are available on-site for purchase. Small camp store at the welcome center where you check-in. Check out their website.

AREA

Association Island is in the Thousand Islands region of New York. The island is about 40 minutes from Watertown.  Watertown is not a big city, but it does have everything you need (Walmart, groceries, Ulta, Tractor Supply, etc).  Kingston in Canada is about another 30 minutes from Watertown. Syracuse is the nearest big-ish city with an airport and most shopping needs. 

Henderson Harbor is about 10 minutes or less and has two great restaurant options. Henderson is also about 10-12 minutes and has Fargo’s, a family-owned grocery store with gas, hot food, pizza, and a beer cooler.

THINGS TO DO

Sackets Harbor is less than thirty minutes away. Very charming historical harbor town. Lots of restaurant options here and local shopping.

Within an hour or so, there are lots of little towns full of history, tours, castles, wineries, shopping, and more in the area. The area is well known for water activities, fishing, and all things of the War of 1812.

We love to tent camp and having three days off a week, we did venture out at least once a month. The Finger Lakes region is about ninety minutes away with lots of hiking and wine trails.  We also loved visiting the Adirondack area, it’s about three hours away. Buffalo and Niagara Falls are about a four-hour drive. NYC (we did not visit) is about an eight-hour drive or you can take a train from Syracuse.

HERE IS WHAT WE THINK

This property has a lot of potential but is currently in a holding place.  There are many amenities advertised that are currently not available.

Association Island has been around for over 30 years as a campground, with lots of history going back to the 1930s.  The campground is going through many changes. There are many amenities and little things that need to be upgraded or repaired that are on corporate hold until the final vision is approved and put into action.

One thing we learned through this workamping experience is that we would be more cautious to work for a corporation going through a new or major transition.  We felt like the corporation was overwhelmed with its ideal vision, the reality of the aging campground, and the pushback from the locals that did not support the expansion. In other words, while many improvements were made, many others have not yet been achieved due to putting them on hold to see where everything fits into their future vision.  This was very frustrating to both of us, having to live there and explain to guests often.

Overall, this is an experience we can check off our bucket list. Island life in New York has now been achieved, but it was not our cup of tea. I (Cory) have learned that I like land more than water, but I had to give it a try to find out. JW learned that while he likes the idea of fishing, he does not fish nearly enough to live in the Thousand Islands region.

Would we work for Sun Outdoors again? Yes, most definitely.

Have any questions? Just ask!