By Craig Horleman

A few years ago, Dover’s Amy Spampinato looked around the area and, as the mother of two girls, had a revelation.

“There are so many events that are ‘kid-friendly.’ Different bands play around in the summers. Everything is kid-friendly and outside, but nothing is specifically for kids,” she said.

That’s where her band, The Pretty Crazies, came in. For the last three years, she has written and performed songs with The Daddy Jam Band aimed at the younger set — but with a grown-up sound.

“We hit that untapped market that speaks a lot to kids, and our music is really, really listenable. It’s not ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ We rock out, and the guys that play with me are amazing musicians, and ... all three of us come from really varied musical backgrounds,” Ms. Spampinato said.

“We’ve been rockers, and we’ve been jazz artists and all sorts of things throughout our life. So we love to play, and we love to play good music.

“The messages that we try to get across in our music are, I would think, also appropriate for adults,” she continued. “They are about being nice to your neighbors and treating people the way you want to be treated and being accepting of everybody regardless of their beliefs and things. So I try to write songs that are maybe using more kid-friendly language but are definitely things that adults could stand to hear.”

The Pretty Crazies will host a Summer Celebration at Wyoming United Methodist Church on Sunday from 3-7 p.m. The band will perform, and there will be a petting zoo, bounce house, waterslides, popcorn, cotton candy and more.

The rain-or-shine event is $5 for children, with adults admitted free. Tickets can be purchased through eventbrite.com or at the door.

The Pretty Crazies, named after their pretty crazy household, started when Ms. Spampinato would write fun songs with her daughters, Vianna, now 9, and Lucia, now 6.

One day, a friend who was writing a book about Down syndrome asked them if they we would pen a song to go along with it. Lucia has Down syndrome, so this was a cause near and dear to the family’s heart.

The song, “More Alike Than Different,” a jazzy, up-tempo number, caught on at schools and has become an anthem during World Down Syndrome Day each March 21.

“We shot a music video for that song, and we just kind of had an open casting call to anybody who wanted to be a part of it. Because of that, we just got so many families that were interested in being in the video. But listening to the song, we had a ton of our friends that have Down syndrome in the video with us. And just the inclusion and getting to spread that message and having the kids get to be together with kids that are different from them was really great,” Ms. Spampinato said.

It was after that The Pretty Crazies started to get booked in libraries and parks and got a chance to spread their musical message to kids and adults alike.

They are joined on stage by what Ms. Spampinato calls her “hype crew,” an assortment of the band members’ kids, all under age 10.

“We do come with quite the entourage, and the kids truly believe that they are a part of the band and that they are very much entitled to get up on the stage and sing and dance. Of course, they know all the songs, and so they’re singing and dancing and getting up there and doing all the things. So it’s really like we bring a party with us when we go places,” she said.

Ms. Spampinato is joined by the members of the Daddy Jam Band, drummer Dan Robinson and bass player Brad Whiteknight.

She has an extensive background in performing, first as a singer when she was young, then as an actress and model in New York City, appearing in soap operas and the television show, “Gossip Girl.”

Lucia is also interested in performing and just shot a couple of commercials for Nathan’s Famous hot dogs.

“She’s working on getting her little career going,” Ms. Spampinato said.

The Pretty Crazies have even spawned a podcast, along with an upcoming YouTube show and eventual album.

Ms. Spampinato said she hopes Sunday’s event can make up for some lost time for area kids.

“We started off just wanting to play another show, and so I was like, ‘OK, well, we’ll play this show. We’ll just set up and play, and whoever wants to come, will come.’ We all happen to go to this church that is hosting it for us. Then, I started thinking about it, and I asked the girls, ‘It kind of stinks that we haven’t had stuff for so long, all the fun concerts and all the stuff like the Fourth of July celebrations’ — and we just started going through all the list of the things that have not happened in the last year-and-a-half, and I was like, ‘You know, what we need is to just turn this into a really big, fun party and make up for all of those things that we missed over this last year-and-a-half,’” she said.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Embrace, a nonprofit group that works with children with special needs and their families.

“One of the things that Embrace always talks about, and we totally love, is the inclusion and how to get people familiar in the community with people who have special needs. A lot of times, you’ll see somebody that is a little different than you, but you don’t have any reason necessarily to hang out with them, and Embrace is really good about that,” Ms. Spampinato said.

“They host these respite night parties where they have different kids and adults from the community come in and volunteer to just be there, and it’s mostly for the parents of the kids with special needs to get away because ... there’s kids that have special needs that do need someone to babysit for a night, so the parents can go out.

“So Embrace gives the parents a night out, and they just have these really awesome parties that the kids love. And community-wise, it’s a great chance for people in the community to just get to know our kids and to see them as kids first and not somebody that’s any different. So (it’s nice) to have a big event like this that we’re hosting where there’s going to be, hopefully, so many people with special needs and differences. When you get to interact with them in a formal setting, you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s just a kid who also likes balloons and that kid also likes to dance and that kid also likes to sing.’

“It doesn’t matter whether they’re in a wheelchair or whether they’re nonverbal or whatever. Everybody can sing and dance and blow bubbles and have a good time. So it’s a really good way just to expose everybody to everybody.”

Miss Delaware tonight

This year’s Miss Delaware Scholarship Competition will take place today at the Milton Theatre.

Twelve candidates will compete for the title of Miss Delaware 2021, in the areas of physical fitness, talent, evening gown and onstage question.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. For tickets, visit here.

Lights Out

Lights Out’s “Decades-Generations of Music” will take a musical journey through time, from the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s to the free-flowing sounds of the 1970s, during two shows Saturday at the Smyrna Opera House.

This show features hits from artists that include Bill Haley & His Comets, The Dovells, The Temptations, The Jackson 5, The Beatles and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

Shows are 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with a limited amount of tickets available for the later show.

All tickets are $25 and can be purchased here, by calling 653-4236 or by visiting the box office at 7 W. South St.

The Grand reopens

After a closure of 467 days, The Grand Opera House in Wilmington announced its first set of live indoor performances Tuesday, beginning with shows in September. This announcement also included information about the building’s 150th birthday Dec. 22, which will be celebrated over three months.

The Grand is set to stage popular national acts, such as comedians Brian Regan and Lewis Black, internet comedic sensation Vic DiBitetto and TV’s Jane Lynch (“Glee”), Kate Flannery (“The Office”) and Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles (“Whose Line Is It Anyway?”).

Musically, the season will also bring the return of Straight No Chaser, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, The Temptations and Storm Large (recently seen on “America’s Got Talent”).

After more than a year of an entire industry shutdown, artists and venues are starting to schedule performances again, but the reemergence of indoor shows will be gradual. By the time The Grand opens for its first currently scheduled performance, it will have been 563 days since an audience sat in one of its three theaters.

The Grand will hold a venue presale through July 5, allowing subscribers, donors and current audience members to purchase tickets before the general public can. Tickets can be purchased here or by calling 652-5577.

Tickets to the general public will go on sale July 6 at 10 a.m.

Arts grants

The CenDel Foundation has distributed $12,261 in grants to organizations fostering the arts in central Delaware.

The Kent County Fund for the Arts, a fund administered by CenDel, provided grants to 11 organizations this month. The grant amounts ranged from $1,000 to $4,500.

The 2021 recipients included Art Works, the Biggs Museum of American Art, Delaware Friends of Folk, the Inner City Cultural League and The Children’s Theatre.

The funding will be used by the recipients to offer diverse performances and shows to the community. Funds will also be used for music education and art therapy.

For more information about charitable resources or the CenDel Foundation, visit here or call Tenish Gregory, director of operations, at 724-7538.

Now showing

New in theaters this weekend is the action film, “F9: The Fast Saga.”