Variety Show Picture Gallery

Variety Show

The end of day camp each summer at Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center is marked by a tremendous Variety Show produced by the day campers. The campers spend weeks perfecting their acts and getting used to the idea of performing on stage in front of a large audience of parents, MRNC staff, and west Indianapolis community members. This year's Variety Show was bigger and better than ever before, thanks to a generous grant which provided drastically improved acoustics and a new sound system in the Mary Rigg gym.

Group acts included:

5 and 6 year olds: "Kung Fu Fighting"

LEADERS (campers ages 11-13): "I Wanna Rock"

7 and 8 year olds' Fashion Show

Individual acts included:

"All American Girl" duet
Solo: "Who Will I Be?"
Solo: "Hit Me with Your Best Shot"
"You Give Love a Bad Name" trio

Enjoy the pictures!

Culinary Camp

For the last two weeks of Summer Day Camp, the LEADERS are learning all about careers in the culinary field. They spent the first four days of Culinary Camp in the kitchen, learning all about what it takes to become a chef first-hand from Chef Keith Brooks who kept them very busy. This week, the LEADERS are headed out into the culinary field and will see culinary careers in action as they visit Second Helpings, Gleaners Food Bank, and Whole Foods Market.

Read below to learn all about their kitchen adventures:

"On the first day, Chef Keith taught us all about working in a kitchen. We learned the rules of the kitchen--like when you walk behind someone you have to say "Behind You" so that nobody gets hurt. You really have to be careful about where you're walking. We learned the right way to carry knives and then learned the proper way to cut all kinds of fruits and vegetables. We had to cut everything just right--we julienned and chopped and diced. It was really neat! Everything has to be just right in order and has to look perfect! It was harder than I thought it would be!"

"On the second day, we were in smaller groups and Chef Keith taught us how to make and present salads. We used spinach (which is actually really yummy!) and nuts and cucumbers and peppers. I can't wait to make the salad again! Everything was so bright and colorful and pretty--it was awesome! We had extra salad left over so we were able to prepare salad plates and served the seniors in the senior dining room--they really liked it and were grateful.

We put roasted almonds on the salads and Chef Keith taught us about economizing. It's really expensive to buy the already seasoned and flavored roasted almonds. He taught us that it's a lot smarter to season and roast them yourself--you can save a lot of money that way--and it's more fun too!"

"On the third day we made chicken. You have to be really, really careful with chicken because it can make you really sick if you don't prepare it right. We learned about the right way to thaw chicken--you leave it in the fridge--NOT out on the counter and then we learned the different ways to cook it. First we sauteed the chicken and then we baked it. It was delicious."

"On the fourth day we made our own pasta with vegetables. It looked awesome and tasted really, really good too! We sauteed the vegetables and now we're really good at sauteeing! We also made our own trail mix and granola with roasted almonds, cashews, and peanuts. We learned so much and it was super cool!"

Gallery of Summer Smiles

Field Day

On Friday, July 25th, Summer Day Camp youth ages 5-13 from all over southwest Indianapolis loaded up the school buses, covered themselves in sunscreen, and headed to Seerley Creek for their annual Field Day-a day of games, food, and fun in the sun. Check out below what they had to say:

"Field day was AWESOME! It was really hot out--we did games with water ballons and we played football and basketball. My team kept on winning--that was great!"
-8 year old day camp participant

"We got to do sack races--we hopped around like bunnies and had a race!!"
-6 year old day camp participant

"My favorite was tug of war with the big rope. I liked too when we played on the swings and had hot dogs outside for lunch."
-5 year old day camp participant

"I loved it at field day when we saw a real beehive! One time this summer we learned about bees and then at field day we saw a real beehive. It was real!"
-5 year old day camp participant

Firefighter for a Day

On July 10 and 11th, all of the kids in Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center's Summer Day Camp program became firefighters for day. They went to Warren Township Government Center where they learned all about what it takes to be firefighters...read their quotes below:

"This day was the coolest ever--it was SO hot outside but we got to wash a fire truck. We got soaking wet and those fire trucks are really, really big!"

"My favorite part of the day was when we learned all about fire safety and then we got to rescue a baby doll from a house that was filled with smoke-well, the house wasn't real though!"

"We got to learn all about how the firemen use hoses to put out fires. They are sooooooooooooo heavy!"

"It takes a while to become a firefighter. You really have to stay in school to be one."

"We got to play waterball which is this really cool game. It was so fun!"

It's a Zoo out there!

Quote from LEADERS participant, 12 years old:

"We went to the zoo and it was so much fun! Since we're the oldest, we got to have 7 and 8 year-old buddies. We were paired with our buddies during the day and we learned responsibility, taking care of them. It was harder than I thought to keep up with them!

It was really hot outside, but we got to touch a baby shark and see the birds and learn all about where animals live in the wild. We went to the dolphin show and got splashed by the dolphins and saw the koala bears sleeping. Ohh! And my favorite was when we went to the butterfly place. There were butterflies everywhere and we could touch them and they landed on us. It's such a cool place."