The annual Winter Formal, known as Barlow’s Snowball, was held on February 24th, 2024, in Barlow’s cafeteria. This year’s theme was “A Touch of Class.” The cafeteria was filled with lights, streamers, and fun-shaped balloons. Although Snowball was initially scheduled for Saturday, January 20th, but the week-long ice storm canceled that date. The cancellation did not deter leadership.
As seven o’clock hit on Saturday night, many students arrived to dance the night away with friends, enjoy snacks made by SkillsUSA, and make memories with friends. This year, Snowball had many different aspects, such as a free photo booth for students that printed photo strips, a vibrant DJ, and complimentary coat checks.
ASB President, senior Lilly Knight shares the timeline of Snowball from start to finish. Leadership starts the preparation for a Snowball in October; as soon as homecoming is done, leadership immediately moves to Snowball theme ideas. “We spent our time as a class brainstorming themes, and all leadership students were required to make design boards with our preferred theme,” Knight shares. All leadership students then present their design boards to the class and narrow the ideas down to about five. Then as a class, leadership votes and eliminates themes one at a time until only one is left. After leadership has chosen a theme, they lay out a clear guideline, meaning they determine what colors are banned and which are allowed, choose main decorations, and discuss the overall goal for the theme.
Once a theme is chosen, Knight makes committees for leadership students to plan different aspects. Each committee also has leaders who oversee their assigned group. All committees brainstorm their own ideas and often use Pinterest boards as inspiration. Further, each committee has a set budget and is responsible for ordering needed items to accomplish their ideas. Leadership spends lots of class time creating handmade decorations, backdrops, coat check bags, and much more. Many leadership students also dedicate time outside of class to make this event happen.
The day before Snowball, leadership stays after school to set up all the decorations, blow up thousands of balloons, and turn the cafeteria into a beautiful dance floor. Even the morning of snowball leadership is there to give the cafeteria the finishing touches.
The minute Snowball ends, leadership starts removing the decor and cleaning up as much as possible. Finally, Sunday morning leadership is hard at work, finishing up cleaning until school returns to normal. Knight shares that “Snowball is an entire weekend commitment for the leadership students the class works so hard to put on the best possible show, and I am so proud of each leadership student for putting in 100% effort for Snowball.”
Much time is spent planning Barlow’s Snowball, mostly by the leadership class. Without all their hard work and dedication, Snowball would not be as extraordinary as it is.
