Aidan Shank’s start-up story begins with a recent pep rally at his Dallas high school.

“We were in the gym and the cheerleaders were throwing prizes into the crowd. But I was in the fifth row, so I never got anything, because, well, cheerleaders aren’t really known for having good throwing arms,” says Shank, who has a charming dry humor. “So I decided to make something to solve this problem.”

What he made was the Cheer Launcher: A cross-bow that allows cheerleaders to launch tubes filled with candy and prizes further into the crowd. He sells the cross-bow for $99, and emphatically reminds everyone that traditional cannnons—his market competition—that are typically used to shoot prizes into crowds at professional sporting events, cost around $2,000.

This 16 year old sophomore at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas,Texas, was in New York this week participating in the first annual Dare To Dream awards sponsored by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.