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. 20-year-old Ray Rivera was crowned the nation's best sign spinner during the AArrow Inc.'s Feb. 6 international competition in South Beach, Fla. The Takoma Park native says sign-spinning has given his life direction.
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 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.