ALBANY, N.Y. — Career day at Concord High School in Staten Island brought in firefighters, postal workers — and a well-dressed man with a brochure titled "Searching for a career that's 6 feet above the rest?"

Matthew Funeral Home co-owner Matthew Scamardella talked to students about his job, showed a video about funeral directing and — he hopes — nudged some teens toward a different career path.

Funeral directors nationwide are focusing on keeping their ranks flush amid fears they may not be able to meet demand as the baby boomer generation ages. In New York, funeral directors are reaching out to guidance counselors and a few dozen, like Scamardella, are taking the campaign to their local high schools.

"We definitely need to have more people thinking about funeral service as a calling," said Scamardella, a third-generation funeral director.

"Your average youngster is not going to waltz into funeral service and say, 'Oh, I'll just give it a go.'"

There are reasons for this. The hours can be long and the pay mediocre, with median earnings in 2002 at $43,380. Then there's the natural squeamishness about working with corpses and what one industry report delicately calls "the societal bias involved with this profession." The stereotype of the ghoulish undertaker or the dysfunctional characters on the HBO show "Six Feet Under" may come to mind.

By going into high schools, the funeral directors hope to show students they're not "standing with our hands folded waiting for somebody to die," said Bill McVeigh, owner of McVeigh Funeral Home in Albany, N.Y.

"I just get great enjoyment out of being able to have people get through a tough time," he said. "That may sound kind of corny, but I do."

There's no big shortage of funeral directors just yet. In fact, the number of new students in degree-granting funeral service education programs jumped by 20 percent in the last four years to 2,836, according to the American Board of Funeral Service Education.

But the growth in the profession is projected to be slow, especially compared to the widely expected rise in demand. The Social Security Administration, for instance, projects that the number of people dying every year will jump by more than a fifth by 2025, to 3.25 million.

Worse still, funeral directors tend to be older than workers in other fields and it's not uncommon for younger funeral workers to bolt to other professions, according to federal labor officials.

Hoping to attract new people — whether it's students, people in mid-career or retirees — The National Funeral Directors Association prepared the "Exploring a Career in Funeral Service" recruiting guide two years ago. It features a video with funeral directors extolling their job, a Power Point presentation, speaking tips and even sartorial advice ("Avoid that black suit!").

New York's funeral directors are going even further. In November, letters and materials designed for high school guidance offices went out to 1,000 schools around the state from a not-for-profit group affiliated with The New York State Funeral Directors Association. Schools received a "6 feet above" poster, brochures and a list of local directors who can make presentations.

It could be a tough audience. Not only does death tend to be far down on the list of preoccupations for high schoolers, but funeral careers are not always on the radar of high school guidance counselors.

"I don't know if I ever would have thought of it," said Concord High School guidance counselor Kimberly Russell. But once she got the information in the mail from Scamardella, he came down to career day on short notice.

Scamardella's tactic was to just be himself — a 57-year-old who likes to ride motorcycles, hit golf balls and serve his community. There's no evidence that any of the students are looking into mortuary science schools just yet, but Scamardella holds out hope.

"We planted a few seeds," he said.