Since 2006, Craig Morrison and Roarockit have been supporting each other through the common goal of helping young people. We celebrate Craig’s retirement this month but will miss him. These pictures are from our archives and show the Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) mainly in the early years, from our perspective. We hope you enjoy them!
Craig at Roarockit, introducing students to a world of personal growth through project-based learning.
While learning to build skateboards at Roarockit, students experimented and explored their creative abilities with Craig’s curriculum. It was not all fun and games, these kids worked hard!
Craig’s curriculum included creating personal brands for each student, as well as brands for local businesses in their community. These projects generated a huge body of student work, here’s a small sampling.
A Community Council was established at OSF to involve parents plus outside members as frequently, parents were not available. Open House at the start of each year pulled in family, friends and associates. Lauren Hortie joined Craig as co-teacher, expanding the ability to offer more subjects and do more events.
With his boundless energy, Craig generated countless events to showcase student achievements. Pop-up shops, art shows, collaborations with artists, and other schools, culminating in the year-end Art Show and Auction held at the Gladstone Hotel, sponsored by Roarockit.
Outreach has become a standard approach to involve students in the local community. Craig arranged for students to become teachers themselves. Students became team leaders in other schools and lead an after school program at the Art Gallery of Ontario by themselves. Students teaching students, what a great way to promote confidence in a young person!
A skateboard is not just a skateboard when parameters are stretched beyond the norms. Craig and Ted Hunter offered a Build a Dream Board program at Roarockit to push conventional boundaries. Students designed and built unusual boards which were sometimes offered at auction or show.
Recently, Roarockit has awarded a student each year to be the OSF Board Builder of the Year! Well done!!
The Student Graduation was held at Roarockit for many years. Seeing so many young people graduate, where their futures had been tenuous at best, makes us very happy. Through his energy and dedication, Craig has turned these lives around. He shows by example, by teaching and by encouraging, that they can make valuable contributions to the world. Some students have gone on to higher education. Some have discovered that building things with their own hands is what they are best at and now have careers in trade oriented professions. Thanks Craig!
Ted and I are eternally grateful to have met Craig and to be able to support his vision of what alternate education could be. What Craig has done for hundreds of students at OSF is to lift them up from a potentially hopeless-looking future to becoming energetic, confident, self-assured young adults. In addition, he has brought our Method of Building a Skateboard to life with his curriculum. Building skateboards to complete a high school diploma has expanded the potential for our Kits to reach many more people than we could alone. Creating a curriculum that meets the Toronto District School Boards’s standards has meant many extra hours of work for Craig. The resulting student success rate over the years has far exceeded all other alternative schools and many conventional ones. Craig (and Lauren) have been richly deserving of countless awards over the years (including the Prime Minster’s award for Achievement in Teaching Excellence!).
Cheers to you Craig for the hard work and huge amount of energy you have spent to create this wonderful program that has helped so many students graduate. Your legacy will live on forever!
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Norah Jackson and Ted Hunter
Co-Founders, Roarockit Skateboard Company