More News

At 18, Ray Rivera wasn't doing too well in school. He had bounced around the region from high school to high school and finally got in enough trouble to quit all together.

At first, spinning signs on street corners just seemed like something to do, not a way out. But Rivera soon realized he was good at performing all sorts of flips and tricks and dips with a cardboard advertisement shaped like an arrow for the passing traffic.

Seven months after joining Aarrow Advertising LLC as a $10-an-hour sign spinner/street performer/advertiser in Montgomery County, D.C., and Virginia, the former Takoma Park resident won a company-held regional competition for his skills.

It was the beginning of what he calls a "personal journey," one that brought with it national recognition from his colleagues, college scholarships and an aspiring career in business.

"I was like, OK this is kind of fun. It's like a sport, my own little sport," the now 20-year-old said from his current home in Baltimore, where he serves as a franchise manager for a new Aarrow branch.

Aarrow started in 2002 in California and Washington, D.C., as an advertising franchise that hires agile youth to entertain drivers while promoting local companies. The company charges clients about $30 to $40 an hour, and sign spinners earn $10 to $20 of that, depending on how long they've been with Aarrow.

And there are more incentives.

On Feb. 6, Rivera made a national name for himself in the company when he was crowned the country's best sign spinner in an annual competition held in South Beach, Fla.

Rivera beat out more than 30 professional spinners, including reigning champion Justin Brown, with what he called "a lucky catch."

During a why-the-heck-not move, Rivera tossed the arrow into the air, flipped on his head and caught it between his feet. The sign was perfectly positioned to face the judges, and the crowd erupted.

Rivera said the move was so spectacular that Brown, the next and final competitor, stopped spinning before his performance ended and announced he couldn't top Rivera.

"He just stopped in the middle of it, threw his sign down and gave me a hug," Rivera said. "Everybody started running over to me."

Rivera earned $1,000 in cash and renewed confidence in what looks like a promising a career. He's moved up "the corporate ladder" as a franchise manager, earning his GED and a $2,000 college scholarship along the way.

He once aspired to be an auto technician running his own environmentally-friendly garage, but now Rivera wants to study business and own his own franchise.

In Baltimore, Rivera hires mostly inner city youth with backgrounds much like his to start spinning signs.

Aarrow is already a top employer of Los Angeles youth, according to public relations director Sarah Frye. Frye said the company hired more than 50 L.A. youth this past summer.

That's the best part about sign spinning, Rivera said. It brings adolescents with diverse life experiences together with the common goal of making drivers smile.

"If you were able to see me spin on the corner, you would see the reaction the people are giving me," he said. "I noticeably brighten people's day through what I do, just me giving my persona, my attitude, everything that I have."

Rivera said the youth hired by Aarrow thrive on that feel-good energy they themselves are promoting.

"We can get 15-year-old kids off selling drugs and being affiliated with gangs and turn him into tomorrow's businessman," Rivera said. " ... Kids have said ‘You changed my life, man. You gave me something to go for, to do in this life, man.'"

It's been a career path the national sign-spinning champion said has changed his own life.

"I never really had that feeling of somebody looking up to me until I had this job, training kids to do tricks and uphold themselves and respect themselves," Rivera said.