A 9 Year Old Boy Helps Make Snowball Fights Legal In Severance Colorado
The Background
In a story that seems like a sequel to Footloose, we find a town in Colorado had a weird law that prohibited snowball fights. Thanks to Dane Best the people of Severance, Colorado can now enjoy one of the best winter activities with having an impromptu snowball fight.
Dane spoke to the town leaders of Severance to end an almost century-old ban on snowball fights. Dane presented his arguments at a town board earlier this week and members voted unanimously to lift the ban. “I think it’s an outdated law,” Dane said in the lead-up to the meeting. “I want to be able to throw a snowball without getting in trouble.”
Dane Putting In Work
Dane’s mother, Brooke Best, told The Greeley Tribune her son had been talking about snowballs since he found out about a month and a half ago that it was illegal to throw them within town limits.
Dane and his buddies joked about breaking the law if they started throwing snowballs. According to Kyle Rietkerk, who is an assistant to the Severance town administrator the rule was part of a larger ordinance that made it illegal to throw or shoot stones or missiles at people, animals, buildings, trees, any other public or private property or vehicles. Believe it or not Snowballs fell under the town’s definition of “missiles.” LET THAT SINK IN!
“All of the kids always get blown away that it’s illegal to have snowball fights in Severance,” Rietkerk said before the meeting. “So, what ends up happening is (town leaders) always encourage the kids with, ‘You have the power you can change the law.’ No one has.”
Then Dane took up the cause, writing letters with his classmates in support of overturning the ban. All his work paid off. When board members asked Dane during a meeting in November who he wants to hit, he pointed at his little brother. Dane and his family have researched other Severance ordinances, including one that defines pets only as cats and dogs.
Looks like Dane has more work to do since he has a guinea pig, which is illegal in Severance. Dane might have found himself a career with all of the work he is doing and he is only 9 years old.