Operation Snowflake teaches healthy decision making

By Andy Hallman

The JOURNAL

A group of 50 junior high students gathered Saturday for a day full of games, food and substance abuse education. The event was ?Operation Snowflake,? which is a cooperative effort between youth and adults to prevent alcohol, tobacco and drug use while promoting healthy decision-making.

Operation Snowflake began in Illinois in the 1970s. That is where Washington social studies teacher Rachel Meyer became involved in it. When Meyer moved to Washington, she brought Snowflake with her. Washington is now the home of the only certified chapter of Operation Snowflake in the state of Iowa, and Meyer is its director. This was the fourth year of the event in Washington.

Students and adults met at the Immanuel Lutheran Church for their day-long get-together. They started the day with breakfast and then listened to their first guest speaker, Eric Weber. Weber is a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff?s Department and is on that department?s drug task force. He told the kids to find something they?re good at and excel at it instead of settling for mediocrity. He told them that being average is just as close to the bottom as it is to the top.

Weber spoke specifically about methamphetamine and the harm it causes. He warned kids about taking weaker drugs, because sometimes those can lead to harder drugs such as meth.

Later that day, the kids heard from Annette Shipley, who is the coordinator of Drug Free Communities. Shipley spoke about the downsides of drinking alcohol. She told the audience that kids have the false impression that drinking is a popular activity and that they have to do it to fit in. She quoted statistics indicating that only a small percentage of junior high students drink.

?The message they need to hear is the majority of their peers do not drink,? said Shipley. ?Eighty percent of their peers do not drink. That is the norm.?

The keynote speaker that afternoon was Jim Jelinske of Creative Education Services. Jelinske tours the Midwest giving educational and motivational speeches, and his focus Saturday was on bullying. Meyer said the Washington School District has made a strong push over the last few years to raise awareness of bullying and teach kids it is unacceptable.

Apart from listening to the featured speakers, the junior high students broke into small groups to discuss the presentation they had just seen.

?The small groups are a safe place to discuss what they hear in the large groups,? said Meyer. ?They talk about hot topics and the issues at hand.?

In every small group are a high school student and an adult volunteer. Lauren Moeller is now in college but was once in Operation Snowflake as a junior high student. She was one of the adult volunteers Saturday. Moeller talked about bullying in her small group, and particularly the newest form of it ? cyberbullying.

?People are texting it (insults) or writing it on Facebook, so you don?t hear how the person meant it,? said Moeller. ?It can be viewed several different ways.?