Operation Snowball is a time-honored tradition at Oak Park and River Forest High School: a weekend away for high school students, by high school students. 

This year, the 27th annual leadership and team-building event will take place between March 17 and 19 at Camp Manitoqua in Frankfort, Illinois.

Operation Snowball is produced by Snowball, a student club sponsored by math teachers Nimmi Weisman and Andrea Gamache, and nurse Natalie Yorty. However, the club is student run and led by 17 student leaders this school year. 

“The whole meaning of Snowball is having a positive impact,” Yorty said. “If I have a positive impact on you, you can have a positive impact on someone else. It’s a snowball effect.” 

This year at Snowball, leaders will break off into groups with students and discuss drugs and alcohol, interpersonal relationships, stress, intersectionality, and coercion, topics from their carefully thought out presentations curated throughout the past school year.

“Snowball has given me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and talk about things that aren’t normally talked about,” student leader Harper Stotts said.

Although Operation Snowball aims to teach valuable lessons, it’s also a great place for students to connect through a multitude of activities. “Snowball is really an opportunity to get to know other students in a meaningful way by sharing our lived experiences – thus learning that even though we may look different on the outside, we are all going through the same thing on the inside,” Gamache said. 

The 2023 theme is “We Are One,” named after a song by Pitbull. Following the theme, students are encouraged to connect with others through workshops such as a hypnosis, yoga, cooking, games and painting. 

“I’ve been able to form such strong bonds with the other student leaders, people who I wouldn’t normally talk to, and I’m so excited to give that chance to others at Operation Snowball,” Stotts said.

The event costs $150 per person, and scholarships are available. Once all 110 spots have been filled, the deadline to sign up will close.