February’s First Friday festivities were far more than the artistic celebration of a weekly Vashon tradition for islanders, as the town welcomed a new businesses and Voice of Vashon’s new radio studio.

As rain pounded down and wind howled outside, dozens of islanders huddled together in the back of the building between Zombiez and Glass Bottle Creamery, now Kelly Macomber Straight’s Vashon Recess Lab, for a ribbon cutting. The group then headed to the front of the building for the ribbon cutting and unveiling of Voice of Vashon’s (VoV) storefront radio studio.

Vashon Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jim Marsh was on hand at both events, serving as the master of ceremonies for the ribbon cuttings. He applauded the Macomber-Straights, as well as VoV for what he called their bravery and investment in the community.

“We wanted to revive the ribbon cutting tradition because these businesses are who we are and how we define ourselves,” Marsh said as he addressed the crowd at Macomber Straight’s studio. “We want to recognize those who are brave enough to take on opening a new business. Any time anyone invests in this community we think it will be great, and we want to celebrate that. Good luck.”

Friday’s festivities marked the end of a long process for both projects that started in the spring of 2015 when the Macomber- Straights bought the building, which was known to be for sale.

The building was the home of Island Quilter for three years, a quilt shop that became world famous for its fabrics and workshops. Island Quilter’s customers, and many others in the Vashon community, reacted negatively to the sale. Macomber Straight said the following months were tough, but her focus all along has been to bring some new offerings to the island.

She is a personal trainer who holds certifications in numerous exercise modalities and bought the building with the intention of creating an exercise studio in the back and a storefront business in the front.

“That’s been Zabette and my focus all along: What can we offer the community? And this is it,” Macomber Straight said. “There’s lots of opportunities to do stuff here. We don’t want to take business away from places already here or have more of what’s already here. That’s why we wanted something new.”

She said that she is planning on hosting teen nights where island teenagers can watch a movie while riding a spin bike or climbing the bouldering wall and will also hold birthday parties.

“We just want to support a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “It’s tough, Ian (her son) is 10 and on First Fridays he can’t do the gallery cruise thing all night, he gets bored, so hopefully this will be a place where kids and teens can come and be active and have fun.”

She also said she wants to have rock climbers give talks and do clinics.

Island physical therapist and yoga instructor Andra Devoght also has an office at the space and will be teaching yoga classes.

Macomber Straight said that once the exercise studio planning was complete, the process to find a tenant for the front portion of the store began. She said that when she and her partner were considering the front of the building, they wanted something that didn’t already exist in town.

“We wanted something that would be great for the community. We didn’t need more ice cream shops or coffee places and a friend suggested VoV,” Macomber Straight said. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s awesome.’”

The duo approached VoV with the proposal in August and the storefront studio was born.

“(VoV was) very interested, obviously, as you can see, but they weren’t sure it was something they could afford,” Macomber Straight said. “We were more interested in the community and having something that was shared, we basically gifted them the space.”

VoV Station Manager Susan McCabe said that once she was approached about the idea, she met with the radio station’s board and, after what she called an “incredible feasibility study,” work began to secure funding from donors and grants. The funding came together and construction of the new space began in October with a workforce of more than 50 volunteers.

“There’s 1,500 volunteer hours in just this project,” McCabe said. “That’s where the funding came from. If we had to pay all of them, this would not be possible. It was driven by the physical need that we’re on display, so it has to look good.”

With a wall of windows facing the highway, the new studio is reminiscent of the radio studio in the 1990s television series, Northern Exposure. The studio floors are the old quilt shop’s and many of the tables and console cabinets are handmade by islanders.

McCabe said the studio has also inspired new radio shows.

VoV board member Rick Wallace said that the reasoning behind building the studio was to create a visible VoV entity in town, one that the community would see and be able to connect with.

“People can see us and know we’re here and support our mission of being a virtual town square where we connect everybody,” he said.

Live shows began being broadcast from the new studio on Friday night and most live shows will begin the transition into the new studio in the coming weeks. McCabe said the station’s goal is to aim for as much live programming as possible, and she said the calendar is filling up.

“The aim is to fill the weekday 1 to 3 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. slots with live programming, and we’re almost there,” McCabe said. “We would love to have programming 24/7.”

VoV’s FM station was licensed in 2014 and relies on island volunteers to host shows. The station has been based out of a small studio at Sunrise Ridge that will continue to be the main operations center of the station. The new storefront studio will serve as the location for live shows as well as a place to potentially broadcast live music.

Longtime VoV radio host and islander Bill Wood talked about the station’s transition “down from the mountain” of Sunrise Ridge in a toast he proposed at the First Friday opening.

“It worked for Granny’s, so we figured we would try it too,” Wood said as the crowd laughed. “When Zabette and Kelly opened their hearts and half their business to us, it was an offer we could not refuse. Here you are standing with a glass of champagne and a gaggle of volunteers whose skills, devotion and enthusiasm built this. Here’s a toast to us, here in this room and here on the island because without Vashon, there would be no VoV.”

Minor work and training will continue to be done at the new studio, and behind it, Macomber Straight will run her group exercise classes on weekday mornings. She is expecting the bouldering wall to officially open in March, the same month that she is hoping to begin First Friday movies for children.

“I think it’s going to be its own thing and the community will make it what it eventually becomes,” Macomber Straight said.

See video of the storefront studio’s ribbon-cutting courtesy of VoV here.