By Abigail McCoy / Full360 Reporter
Flash forward to the final weekend of April. The smell of fresh popcorn and milkshakes. The sound of a live band and the animals waiting to be shown. And the sight of the rows upon rows of small businesses waiting to sell their handiwork to the eager students at Delaware Valley University.
This year on April 26th, 27th, and 28th, DelVal will be holding its annual event A-Day,” which is also less commonly known as Activities Day. A-Day has been a tradition at DelVal since 1949, starting out as only one day and then later extending to a weekend-long event.
“It’s changed over the years but the livestock is consistent,” says Marian Schad, one of the librarians at DelVal and previous A-Day committee advisor. “It was actually instituted to show mostly families and the parents of the kids what they were learning, what they were doing, and then over the years the community was invited and it just grew and grew.”
Over the years, A-Day has expanded tremendously. Starting off as a small showcase of student talent and DelVal animals, the event has now become a state fair and is one of the most highly anticipated events on campus. A-Day has it all. Not only does it include show tents for students to show off their talents of showing animals such as cows, pigs, and sheep, but it also has a variety of other things.
Clubs have the opportunity to fundraise and promote for their club, students can submit their art/crafts in a craft fair, clubs and orgs can put on demonstrations and performances, and also small businesses can come on campus and sell their items.
In the beginning, small businesses were not a part of this event. A-Day has always been student run and it was created to showcase student’s talent. So what’s the main purpose of bringing small businesses to this primarily student run event? Two members of the A-Day committee shed some light on this subject.
“I would say the biggest importance of having small business vendors here is just where we are, we’re so close to Doylestown… Doylestown is all about small business, you know mom and pop’s, that’s what Doylestown is,” says Alice Kaufman, a junior large animal science major, who is currently Vice President of vendors on the A-Day committee. “I think in this day and age when you have Amazon Prime, you have everything online now, I think the small businesses really get taken away from… and I just think having them come to A-Day, be in the face of the public… I think it’s just really great for everyone to see all that and support these small businesses because they only get the support when people know about them.”
Ashleigh Moss, a senior large animal science major, and President of the A-Day committee also added, “I like to think that some of our vendors have some kind of relationship with DelVal, because a lot of them you talk to them and it’s like “well I’ve been coming here for 20 years.” It’s like a tradition for some of these businesses as well. And I think DelVal has a special relationship with the surrounding community in general, let alone alumni or anyone else who has been related with DelVal… I know we have students now who have their own small businesses at home and they’re coming to A-Day this year to be a vendor.”
Bringing the community together is a huge aspect of A-Day, whether that’s through the campus or the small businesses. With A-Day being so student involved, it can sometimes be difficult to see the true importance of small business vendors aside from bringing in a larger attendance. And while this is important too, what does it mean for the students? What are the other benefits other than students being able to bring their small businesses to campus?
“I know personally this year I was looking for a lot more vendors that would go towards our students for jobs in the future,” says Kaufman. “PA Game Commission is coming this year, so our students can talk to them about jobs and things that they want to see for their future. So we try to push for some educational things towards them, to give them those options, but it’s also just a fun weekend for everybody to socialize, hang out, make friends, and eat good food.”
The small business vendors can be super beneficial not only towards the students but also the community and committee itself.
“It opens up the campus to the community and it always surprises me that people who live in this area… don’t know that DelVal is here,” says Schad. “It’s a great way to get the community onto campus and the things like the vendors… they actually help fund A-Day… I think that’s something people don’t realize when they come to A-Day, is just the cost of putting it on is enormous.”
Every year the A-Day committee works really hard to put on this event for the campus and community, and every year it’s a blast. Without the committee’s hard work, the event would not have been continuing on for 75 years. And the committee is always looking for help.
“If you want to join A-Day, join A-Day,” Kaufman and Moss said. “We’re going to need people… mid April we’ll start looking at filling new positions… there’s a lot of seniors so we gotta get the young guys in there.”
So mark your calendars for the upcoming A-Day and check out the A-Day committee and everything they do for this wonderful weekend. Also look out for all of the small businesses attending A-Day, whether they have something you’re interested in buying or if there are any potential job opportunities. A-Day has something for everyone to make it the best weekend of the year.