Dam Store Provides Rewards for Students

Bella Pointer and Bethany Morris work at the Dam Store.

Taylor Hardy

Bella Pointer and Bethany Morris work at the Dam Store.

Taylor Hardy

At Karns High School, there is a little concession type store in the cafeteria. They sell candy, snacks, school supplies, and even Karns apparel. This is called the Dam Store. They set up a system called “Dam Dollars,” which you earn from teachers to purchase things from the store. You can earn Dam Dollars by doing your work, participating well in class, helping others in your class and even just always being on time for class. Creating this was just a way to encourage students to try their best and do the right thing and then use the “Dam Dollars” they earned. Two of Karns sophomore students Bethany Morris and Bella Pointer run this store during Wednesday’s lunch.

Pointer says the store isn’t hard to run “because we have a system that we created to help us to properly run it and make it faster.”

The Dam store was created by the student culture committee that allows for students to implement their Dam Dollars.Its basically an incentive for students. Overall, the Dam store provides the student body and the school with the opportunity to purchase items that they need or desire.

“I think it has positively impacted our school and helped with students behaving better and working harder,” Culture Committee member Maddie Little says.

Ms.Rhoden volunteered to take over the Dam store because DECA has an event called the school based enterprise.

“Not this year but for next year I would like to use this store and make it a competitive event for my DECA members,” Ms.Rhoden mentions.

Ms. Rhoden, Morris, and Pointer came up with how to price everything in the store with the Dam dollars and in comparison to real money. Within the second week they had to change the prices because they realized they were not making any money so they had to bump up the price of things just a little. Students can also pay with cash and they are open to any donations there. The Dam Store has definitely given them an experience, and they get to see what it’s like so that next year they will be able to improve it even more.