--- title: 9-Year-Old Boy Overturns Town's Snowball Fight Ban description: A young Colorado boy has successfully convinced the town of Severance to overturn its nearly century-old ban on snowball fights. canonical: https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-04T17:40:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:17.128Z og:title: 9-Year-Old Winter Enthusiast Beats Town's Snowball Fight Ban og:description: Apparently snowball fights had been illegal since the town's 1920 founding og:url: https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a6d29203140a54/69894081bc6cfcf2253e798b/snowball-fight-ban.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Snowball-Fight-Ban og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 9-Year-Old Winter Enthusiast Beats Town's Snowball Fight Ban twitter:description: Apparently snowball fights had been illegal since the town's 1920 founding twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a6d29203140a54/69894081bc6cfcf2253e798b/snowball-fight-ban.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dogged 9-Year-Old Winter Enthusiast Successfully Knocks Out His Town's Snowball Fight Ban  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 4, 2018 5:40 PM UTC  Person holding snowball Person holding snowballUpperCut Images/Getty Images/Uppercut RF  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 4, 2018 5:40 PM UTC A young [Colorado](http://time.com/5448693/colorado-vote-amendment-abolish-slavery/) boy has successfully convinced the town of Severance to overturn its nearly century-old ban on [snowball fights](http://time.com/3721991/monks-snowball-fight-jerusalem/). With his younger brother in mind as his first target, 9-year-old Dane Best laid out his case for making snowball fights legal at a Severance town board meeting Monday night. Board members then voted unanimously to lift the ban, according to [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/severance-colorado-overturns-snowball-ban-dane-best-presentation-arguments-town-board-meeting-today/). “The children of Severance want the opportunity to have a snowball fight like the rest of the world,” Best argued, according to to local newspaper [The Greeley Tribune](https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/severance-repeals-ban-on-snowball-fights-following-9-year-old-dane-bests-presentation/). “The law was created many years ago. Today’s kids need a reason to play outside.” The rule, which town officials think had been around since the town’s 1920 founding, is part of an ordinance that strictly forbid people from shooting or throwing missiles or stones at people, animals, trees or property. However, the snowball aspect wasn’t enforced. “All of the kids always get blown away that it’s illegal to have snowball fights in Severance,” Kyle Rietkerk, assistant to the Severance town administrator, 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.” Looks like Best did just that. > [](https://twitter.com/DillonMThomas/status/1069740714832015360) > [](https://twitter.com/ReporterAshley/status/1069768124986052608) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/"},"headline":"Dogged 9-Year-Old Winter Enthusiast Successfully Knocks Out His Town's Snowball Fight Ban","datePublished":"2018-12-04T17:40:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:17.128Z","description":"Snowballs had been illegal since the town's 1920 founding","url":"https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Holidays 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a6d29203140a54/69894081bc6cfcf2253e798b/snowball-fight-ban.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39a6d29203140a54/69894081bc6cfcf2253e798b/snowball-fight-ban.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Snowball-Fight-Ban","caption":"Person holding snowball","creditText":"UpperCut Images/Getty Images/Uppercut RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5470311/severance-colorado-snowball-fight-ban/","name":"Dogged 9-Year-Old Winter Enthusiast Successfully Knocks Out His Town's Snowball Fight Ban"}}]}] ```