{"id":3003,"date":"2023-11-10T01:36:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T01:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3003"},"modified":"2023-11-10T01:38:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T01:38:44","slug":"the-new-oasis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3003","title":{"rendered":"The New Oasis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Raise your hands if you remember the Ontonagon Area Schools\u2019 in-house store called The Oasis.\u00a0 If you remember it, dig back a little farther and try to remember why it was called The Oasis to begin with.\u00a0 Many, many former students and staff remember the store, but so far, no one has been able to identify the source of the name.\u00a0 Former OASD electronics instructor Larry Mattioli suggested the title of the popular song <\/span>Midnight at the Oasis<\/span><\/i> as a possible source.\u00a0 The store was run as part of an Intermediate School District vocational class so some of us parlayed that connection into <\/span>O<\/span>ntonagon <\/span>A<\/span>rea <\/span>S<\/span>chools <\/span>Intermediate<\/span> S<\/span>chool (District).\u00a0 That is our story and we are sticking with it until someone comes forward with a better memory, or perhaps (even better), actual facts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Distributive Education program faded from view in the early 2000s and the room where the old Oasis store was located reverted into a more traditional classroom space.\u00a0 It was rented to the ISD for a time and later converted into the school\u2019s new Fab Lab.\u00a0 School counselor Lindsey Kalla\u2019s Career Exploration and Entrepreneur class recently renovated a room in the hall above the school music room into a new version of The Oasis.\u00a0 The new store opened for business on November 1, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The project actually started during the last nine weeks of the 2022-23 school year when the CC&E started a different venture called the Gladiator Caffeinator.\u00a0 The GC is a portable coffee bar which can be rolled out for special events.\u00a0 The Caffeinator was put into service when a production team from NBC Nightly News who came to the school in late October 2023 to film a feature about the school radio station, WOAS-FM.\u00a0 The Caffeinator was always intended to be the first step in setting up a new school store.\u00a0 The students decided it should bear the name of the former school store, The Oasis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to Kalla, \u201cWe planned, created a Code of Ethics, and a slogan (\u2018We are always GLAD to serve you!\u2019).\u00a0 We have voted on what products to sell and the prices for the items.\u00a0 After all the work done during the first nine weeks (of this school year), we decided to open small, knowing that as we make money we will create more items with the Oasis and Gladiator themes (like t-shirts) and expand the products we are selling.\u201d\u00a0 K-12 principal Liz Grenke-Leach pointed out the new business made a conscious decision to not sell the same products available in the snack machine that helps pay for some of the bills for WOAS-FM.\u00a0 It sounds like the students are being exposed to \u2018best practices\u2019 like cooperating with other fundraising efforts rather than engaging in outright competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It takes a certain \u2018entrepreneurial mindset\u2019 to start a new business and it certainly seems Kalla and her students checked off all the right boxes to get the store up and running.\u00a0 When approached about selling WOAS-FM logo items in the store, they were greeted with another cooperative gesture when the station staff said, \u201cOh yes, please do!\u201d\u00a0 The station even offered to donate ten shirts and some logo hats to help them get off the ground.\u00a0 The station\u2019s GM offered to put them in contact with the local vendor who produces them for future reference.\u00a0 We could call this a lesson in \u2018local product sourcing\u2019 with a side helping of \u2018support your local businesses\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The store is open before school, at lunchtime, and during 5th hour each day.\u00a0 Plans are for them to eventually be open during home games, but this is still in the planning stages.\u00a0 It would make sense because the new Oasis is located in the same hall fans enter on their way to the Gladiator Arena.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As long as we are taking a trip down memory lane, how many former OASD students remember the school newspaper, <\/span>The Spotlight?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The late Helen Toivonen, the school\u2019s business teacher for many years, served as the advisor for this endeavor.\u00a0 She always chuckled at the lengths her students went to dig up school and community news fit to print.\u00a0 <\/span>The Spotlight<\/span><\/i> even had their own Dear Abby<\/span> style advice column that went by the title \u2018Dear Glipshot\u2019.\u00a0 Helen said they wrestled to come up with a suitable name for the column.\u00a0 They finally resorted to cutting out the letters in the name, <\/span>Spotlight, <\/span><\/i>and pushing them around on the table until something resembling a word appeared.\u00a0 The word was, of course, \u2018Glipshot\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They say you can\u2019t go home again, yet the opening of the new Oasis is more than just a nostalgia trip.\u00a0 Students are never too young to learn how to become entrepreneurs – who knows what kind of path these skills will lead them down in the future?<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, so they are probably not selling brides – but the title fits the article – right?\u00a0 Tell them Smokey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Raise your hands if you remember the Ontonagon Area Schools\u2019 in-house store called The Oasis.\u00a0 If you remember it, dig back a little farther and try to remember why it was called The Oasis to begin with.\u00a0 Many, many former students and staff remember the store, but so far, no one has been able to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3003"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3006,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}