The Bear Facts
February 3, 2018
Good morning! I’m Amanda Miller!
I’m Abbi Heying!
And I’m Isabelle Davis! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the
radio show where every week we keep you up to date with all the news from Bishop
Garrigan High School.
There’s been a lot of colds and flu going around the area recently, and
yesterday we took part in an annual tradition we hope might prevent some of
that. Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, an Armenian bishop from the 4th Century
who rescued a choking child. Since the year 1625 there has been a traditional
blessing of the throats in the name of St. Blaise, and for several years now
we’ve maintained this tradition at Garrigan. We held our Blessing of the Throats
yesterday morning, and we hope it will help keep everyone healthy through the
rest of winter.
The state large group speech contest is being held today over in LeMars.
Garrigan’s one-act play will be performing at 4:00 this afternoon. They did a
public performance last Wednesday as part of our Catholic Schools Week
celebration, and almost everyone who saw the show was impressed. The one-act is
called The Brothers Grimm: Out of Order, and it’s about a group that tries to
put on a play about Grimm’s fairy tales where everything goes wrong.
Caitlin Thilges stars as the producer, Emma Thul plays the director, and
Gigi Byrkeland is their assistant. Caroline Bradley, Ashlyn Harrington, Jordan
Hansen, and Jenna Boelter are young actresses auditioning for the lead, and
Megan Wadle plays their stage mother. Logan Heying and Gabe Trainer play the
Brothers Grimm, trying to write the play at the last mile. Bryce Capesius and
Laurel Degen are Hansel and Gretel, Sam Vaske is Prince Charming, John Zeimet is
Joringel, and Emory Miller is as know-t-all sister. Layah DeLange plays
Principal Gruffman, and Madison Illg is the assistant principal. Then there’s
Oregon Ducks fan John Meis, who plays a guy in a duck suit. Best wishes at state
to the cast of our one-act play.
Rehearsals began this past week for the BGHS spring play. The drama
department will present The Cases of Sherlock Holmes on March 23 and 24. Sam
Vaske is playing Sherlock Holmes, and Tommy Kollasch is his assistant, Dr.
Watson. Other cast members include Caroline Bradley, Bryce Capesius, Layah
DeLange, Gabe Trainer, Aidan Koob, Laurel Degen, Eric Thul, Ashlyn Harrington,
and Caitlin Thilges.
Others in the spring play cast are Joey Trainer, Jordan Hansen, Logan
Heying, Sam Trainer, John Zeimet, Jenna Boelter, Emory Miller, Megan Bronk,
Jenna Heinen, Skyland Merza, Madison Illg, and Emma Thul. Mark your calendar for
the weekend of March 23 and 24 for the Garriganspring play.
Hard work definitely does pay off. The state show choir festival was held
last Monday at eight different sites around Iowa. In Class 1-A only five schools
in the entire state received Division One ratings, but one of those schools was
Bishop Garrigan—which hadn’t competed in show choir in more than twenty years.
Not only did they earn superior ratings, but the judges gave Garrigan’s
“Illumination” show almost perfect marks for both their musical ability and
their presentation.
The girls in show choir are Caitlin Thilges, Megan Bronk, Isabelle Davis,
Emma Thul, Ashlyn Harrington, Layah DeLange, Amanda Miller, Madison Illg, Bailey
Kollasch, Lauren Kenyon, and Jordan Hansen; as well as Emma Fogarty, Tara Kron,
Mackenzie Meister, Abbi Heying, Julia Berte, Andrea Pacheco, Gracie Elsbecker,
and Caroline Hough.
Boys in the group include Sam Trainer, Tommy Kollasch, Aric Laubenthal,
Gabe Trainer, John Zeimet, Joey Trainer, Jack Snyder, and Marcus Plathe.
Garrigan students accompanying the group were Kaylyn Meyers and Logan Heying.
Congratulations to director David Fog and the show choir!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Parker Schiltz. Parker is a
second-generation Golden Bear. He lives in the Algona area, but his family is in
the process of moving to southern California. Parker’s biggest activity is golf.
He’s also been a manager for other sports, and he’s been part of coed dance
routines all through school. Parker also helps to maintain the BGHS student
website. Next year he plans to major in landscaping and turf management at Iowa
State University, and we wish him all the best in the future.
On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s state speech contest today
in LeMars. Garrigan’s one-act play competes at 4pm.
Monday the early childhood division at Seton will have an open house. That night
the boys basketball team hosts West Bend—Mallard. Then Tuesday there’s the Top
of Iowa Conference cross-over challenge.
We’ll have a student mass on Wednesday. After that accelerated math students
will take the American Mathematics Competition Exam, a very challenging
nationwide test.
Girls basketball playoffs begin Thursday, but the Bears have a bye that
night. They’ll host their regional opener a week from Tuesday in the second
round of playoffs.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure
to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
JR 2/1/2018