For years, V-Day has been a longstanding part of the D-E tradition. This year, faculty advisor Ms. Rachel Brainin and one of the V-Day Club’s student leaders, Delilah Brainin ’23, helped organize the club’s annual event on February 24. Each year, members have donated all of the funds raised by V-Day to the Women’s Rights Information Center (WRIC) in downtown Englewood and as Delilah shared, have “help[ed] foster a community of people who want to support and encourage each other to grow and express themselves.”

This year, V-Day organizers also invited performers from WRIC to “provide a way for the D-E community to interact cross-generationally and cross-divisionally”, according to Ms. Brainin. Important issues to both girls and women were addressed in the assembly through dances, writing, songs, and visual art.

V-Day not only impacts the D-E community and beyond, but also influences those directly involved in its organization. Delilah further shared that “V-Day has pushed me in so many ways and helped me grow into myself as an artist and as a person… I have watched myself go from the youngest in the group, nervous to read my work out loud, to a confident leader striving to encourage others to step out of their comfort zones and find the same empowerment in this event that I did”.

For Ms. Brainin, she learned to “sit back and let the students steer the ship”, something that is different from her usual third grade classroom. “Lots of magical things occur when [students] are empowered to make it happen”.