East Dallas Times

Tom Crabb and Aden Shank with his Cheer Launcher — Courtesy Photo

Community Contribution

A high-tech Cheer Launcher, Designer Bows, and Advanced Goal Keeper Training won top honors in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Greater Dallas final citywide competition.

Aden Shank, owner of Cheer Launcher and Woodrow Wilson High School sophomore, took first place and $1,000 in prize money for his innovation and business plan.

He was instructed by veteran NFTE certified entrepreneurship teacher Tom Crabb — a 1971 Woodrow grad and parent to three daughters who graduated Woodrow — and was mentored by local businessman and entrepreneur Ron Artzer, owner of New Horizons Custom Product Solutions.

The finals took place June 4 at The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at University of Texas at Dallas.

The journey began during August when more than 1,500 students began selecting their businesses, researching their competitive advantages, determining their marketing strategies, refining their financials, and eventually putting it all on paper.

During April, students perfected, revised, and defended their individual business plans during in-classroom competitions. Teachers selected the top competitors from their classes to advance to the preliminary round of competition in May where more than 80 students competed during two days at The Universities Center at Dallas.

Twenty students advanced to compete for the top-six slots May 19 at the law offices of Winstead PC.  From there, the top six businesses were selected to move on to the final round of competition.

Shank spent part of the year developing a device that launches candy-filled rolls into the stands at local sporting events. His “ah-ha” moment came when attending a pep rally at school, sitting in the top row of the bleachers, having skipped lunch that day.

He was “starving and hoping to catch one of the candy-filled rolls being thrown by the cheerleaders,” Shank said. “Unfortunately I also realized that unless one of the cheerleaders throwing the rolls was on steroids, the likelihood it would get past the first couple of rows was very unlikely.”

The experience gave birth to his idea for Cheer Launcher. Shank has also been working on a patent to protect his invention. He is most certainly a young man with a vision and a great deal of energy.

Adapted from an article for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Dallas.