The Bear Facts
February 14, 2015
Good morning! I’m Tony Kollasch!
I’m Kaitlyn Fogarty!
And I’m Dorothy Kirsch! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”. Happy Valentine’s Day from everyone here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last weekend the Golden Bear math team competed in a Great Plains Math League tournament at Iowa State University in Ames. The Bears had a great day. The freshman/sophomore team took first place in their division. That team included Levi Capesius, Ben Fogarty, Josh Hamilton, Ben Degen, and Sam Trainer. The junior/senior team—with Kaitlyn Fogarty, Tony Kollasch, Zach Kollasch, Devin Degen, and Kylie Fox—ended up in third place overall. Congratulations to Coach Daryl Kohlhaas and the math team!
The speech team also competed last weekend. They were over in Sioux City for the Iowa High School Speech Association state large group contest. Garrigan’s top group was in radio broadcasting. The group of Nick Kayser, Mariah Bronk, Betty Straub, and Taylor Illg earned straight Division I ratings and outstanding comments from the judges. The Bears also received a Division I or “Excellent” rating for the group mime “Thieves in the Night”, which featured Taylor Frideres, Amanda Altman, Mariana Pacheco, and Hannah Bernhard. Congratulations to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow and the speech team!
Construction continues on the new addition at the south end of Garrigan, and—knock on wood—the work is running well ahead of schedule. The sub-floors have been poured for the new gym and the classroom and office space, and electrical and plumbing work is underway. Very soon the newly enlarged gym lobby should be open to the public.
Meanwhile work continues throughout the rest of the building as we prepare to have the upper elementary grades move from Seton to Garrigan over the summer. There’s a brand new elementary music room, and renovations to turn the old ICN room into a business room are almost complete. We’re starting to install wall-mounted projectors in several classrooms, and many other updates are also taking place. This is being paid for up front, thanks to the capital campaign that raised almost three million dollars for the addition and improvements around the school.
We’re also in the process of updating technology throughout the school, mostly thanks to money donated at Gala. A recent addition is five new Windows 8.1 laptops that are used primarily by our Specialized Technology Topics class. That class designs and maintains the website bggoldenbears.org, which continues to be filled with information and thousands of pictures that document every activity in our school.
Gala 2015 is just around the corner. The theme for the twenty-sixth annual celebration is “Mad Hatter’s Ball”. The big night is Saturday, April 11, the weekend after Easter. There will be a preview party on Friday, April 10. For tickets or more information, be sure to contact Mindy Laubenthal at the Garrigan development office.
On last week’s show our lead story was about a number of tragedies—including Carter Hall, who was in a serious snowmobile accident and was hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic. We’re delighted to say that Carter is now back home in Algona. We’re continuing to pray for him, and we know it will still be a long time before things are back to normal. We’re glad Carter is home, though, and we want him and his family to know that everyone here at Garrigan is with them through every step of the recovery.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Taylor Illg. A week from now Taylor Illg will be headed for Haiti on a service project at St. Cecelia’s twin parish of St. Jean de Chantal. Taylor is one of the most active students in the senior class. In the fall he runs cross-country, and in the spring he plays golf. Between those seasons he’s a manager for the basketball team. Taylor has been to nationals in quiz bowl, and he also keeps busy with music, speech, and drama. Taylor is looking at attending Loras College next fall, and we wish him the very best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar, the danz squad will have their annual show tomorrow evening starting at 6:00. Next Tuesday the school board meets, and that night Garrigan will be hosting the second round of girls basketball playoffs.
Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We’ll begin our day with a Service of Word and Ashes at St. Cecelia’s.
We’ll be hosting boys district basketball Thursday night, with the Bears taking on Graettinger—Terril. Then on Friday there’s the girls regional semi-final at Newell—Fonda.
Finally this week, we’re keeping resource teacher Peg Vanderhoff in our prayers. Mrs. Vanderhoff’s brother died last Wednesday, and we want her to know everyone here at Garrigan is thinking of her.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.