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."

Hockey Time!

“On Monday, Indiana Ice came to play hockey with us at Mary Rigg. During the winter Mary Rigg took us on a trip to see them play ice hockey and then they came here this week to play with us! We all got to play and we had helmets and sticks and they even made a hockey ring around the gym. I got to be the goalie. I never played hockey before. It was really cool. My team made a goal, but we didn’t keep score. I learned to keep my stick on the ground so nobody gets hurt.”

Up, Up, and Away!

Yesterday, the LEADERS group spent the day learning all about airplanes and careers in the airline industry. The group visited the Aviation Technology Center at Vincennes University where they saw first-hand what it takes to become an airplane mechanic. The group then toured two hangers and later visited AAR's site for fixing airplanes. Read below for a first-hand perspective written by one of the LEADERS:



"So when we got there we looked at the welding room. The electrical room we didn't get to go into because there was a special class going on. We saw all different kids of airplanes. We saw in 3 different ones. We seen a helicopter but didn't get to sit in that one. We sat on a 737 plane; we sat in the normal seats then 1rst class and...Then we say in the cock pit. We were making noises, it was really fun!! After that we ate lunch and went to a different building. We saw planes getting taken apart and put back together. It was a fun and great day there."



Another perspective:



"I had fun there and we looked at air plains. We got to look at a 737 it's big like a house. We got to see a helicopter. We saw a welding room and hangers. We got to see a plain take off it was exciting. We sat in 2 cockpits."