Fun and Games First, Life Lessons Later
Youth Fest Organizers Balance Serious Messages With Prizes and Activities

By Julia Feldmeier
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006

There are lots of ways to entice teenagers to an event. You beckon them with candy and prizes. Laser tag and rock-climbing walls. Teenage girls in shorts and teenage boy bands onstage.

You do not entice teenagers with pamphlets on abstinence, substance abuse and violence prevention.

Hence the reason that Saturday's Loudoun County Youth Fest masqueraded as a teen carnival, despite its underlying purpose of educating teens about weightier matters.

"If we advertise 'Substance Abuse Prevention Day,' of course no one would come," said Shannon Walker, a junior at Foxcroft School in Middleburg and the student chairman of the Youth Fest committee.

But the teens did come, flocked even, to the free event at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, where they bumped bellies in the sumo wrestling ring and raced each other up the inflatable mountain provided by Special Forces Track Club, a nonprofit youth track club. They chatted with Redskins running back Rock Cartwright, a special guest. They waited in a winding line at the Hawaiian shaved-ice hut, tapping their feet to the beat of the bands.

The event was a condensed version of last year's Loudoun Youth Fest, which was spread over a week, one attraction per day.

"We decided it would be more effective if we crammed it into one all-day outdoor festival," said Tim Chestnutt, chairman of the Loudoun Youth Initiative, which hosted the event with the Loudoun County Advisory Commission on Youth.

This year's festival included more input from Walker and other members of the Loudoun Youth Advisory Council. Chestnutt estimated that more than 50 teenagers across the county were involved in the planning.

"This was their project for this year," he said. "This event was youth-driven, absolutely."

And being savvy to the minds of their peers, the teenagers hatched a plan to draw attention to the 30 organizations at the carnival: To be eligible to win prizes, attendees had to have their "passport" -- available at the park entrance -- stamped by representatives of such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Boys & Girls Clubs and Young Life.

Not a foolproof strategy but still effective.

"Usually they come for the stamps, but they're still receptive to information," said Jonathan Horowitz, who was peddling information at the booth for Stop Assault Against Youth. The nonprofit group produces programs about preventing teen violence and bullying.

"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.