Fun and Games First, Life Lessons Later

"You need to have an elevator speech, to say what it is you do in the time it takes to ride up an elevator," Horowitz explained. "You could change that to 'stamp speech' here."

He performed his "stamp speech" for a teenage girl who stopped by, instructing her to help herself to the pamphlets and candy on the table.

She smiled. "I'll take a lollipop, and I'll get all my friends to come back and sign up."

Naomi Lockley, a 16-year-old from Ashburn, said the information at the booths did penetrate, on some level.

"People are affected by stuff," she said. "If you put it out there, they'll look at it."

The kids were also affected by prizes -- especially cash prizes. Late in the afternoon, the winner of an online lottery designed to encourage early signups was announced. Jacob Burton, 15, a ninth-grader at Harmony Intermediate School, was chatting with friends to the side of the stage when he heard his name called.

"I won!" he shouted. "Wait -- what did I win?"

Two hundred and fifty dollars.

For Jacob, it was indeed a great day at the teen carnival.