THE BEAR FACTS
DECEMBER 5, 2015


Good morning! I’m James Quinlin!

I’m Devin Degen!

 And I’m Michael Andrew Lallier! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

 Winter is here. We’ve already had one snow day, one late start, and one early dismissal. That means it’s time for us to remind you of the school policies when winter weather strikes. In most cases Garrigan and Seton follow the decisions of the Algona Community Schools—except that, because of busing, when there’s an early dismissal we get out fifteen minutes before the public schools.

 If there’s a late start, there any before-school activities that morning are cancelled. On early dismissal days there’s no practices or activities after school. On no-school days afternoon and evening activities are generally cancelled. However that can change if the weather changes, so pay attention to updates on those days. All announcements are sent to KLGA and to area television stations, and they’re always posted on bggoldenbears.org.




 Today the first-ever Top of Iowa Conference speech tournament is being held over in Forest City. Garrigan junior Levi Capesius will be performing his acting selection as part of the competition. Meanwhile twenty-seven other Garrigan students will be preparing for the main speech season, which starts right after Christmas. This year Jake Rosenmeyer and David Burrow are directing large group speech. They’ll be working with groups in readers’ theatre, choral reading, ensemble acting, and radio broadcasting.

 This is a busy time of year for the quiz bowl team. Last Wednesday seven students competed in the fall 3—2—1 tournament, a nationwide online academic competition. They spent about an hour and a half answering questions in categories ranging from Greek mythology to calculus. The Bears ended up scoring 267 points, which is 12 points more than Garrigan scored last spring when they were the #2 team in Iowa. We’ll find out next week how they stacked up against this year’s competition.

 Students competing in 3—2—1 included seniors Devin Degen and Joseph Espinosa; juniors Levi Capesius and Andrew Thilges; sophomores Sam Trainer and Ben Degen, and freshman Gabe Trainer. There’s more quiz bowl action today. Those same people—as well as Noah Buscher, Logan Capesius, Samantha Harrignton, Tommy Kollasch, and Logan Heying are up in Spirit Lake for one of the oldest tournaments in the area. Good luck, quiz bowl!

 Last Thursday the Golden Bear danz squad competed in the 40th Annual Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Championships. Garrigan has a long tradition of success in dance, and they continued that this year. The Bears competed in the kick and pom events, and they ended up taking home first place trophies in both categories.



 This year’s danz squad includes senior veterans Sophia Grandgenett, Kassidy Schiltz, and Hailey Kollasch; juniors Courtney Noonan, Sarah Skilling, Chloe Garman, and Danielle Plathe; sophomores Aubrey McEnroe, Kat Willie, Olivia Hall, and Grace Menke; and freshmen Laurel Degen, Bella Capesius, Madison Illg, and Megan Besch. Congratulations to Coaches Colleen Conway—Schiltz and Barb Stence and all the dancers!

 Next Friday we’ll have a special project at Garrigan. Middle school students will be packaging meals for the poor, with high school students supervising them. The project is similar to the packaging Parish Families Against Hunger does each spring at St. Cecelia’s, but the Garrigan project—which involves no fundraising—will send meals to needy families in the United States rather than to Haiti. We’re hoping students and families who participate in the Garrigan project will then help out with the big meal packaging project on Palm Sunday.

 Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Maddie Sullivan. Here to tell you about her is Michael Condoleon.

 With basketball season here, we’re saluting Maddie Sullivan. Maddie is a veteran player on the girls’ team, and her shooting skills from far out on the floor are especially useful to the Bears. Maddie is a National Honor Society member, she’s active in Christian Leadership in Action, and you may have heard her announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. She’ll be off to college next year, and we wish Maddie all the best in the future.

 Thanks, Today is a very busy day on our Golden Bear calendar. There’s quiz bowl this morning at Spirit Lake and also the conference speech tournament in Forest City. This afternoon there’s a basketball quad at Northwood—Kensett.

 Tomorrow is the second Sunday of Advent, and it’s also St. Nicholas Day. Monday the “J-J-V” Bears—that is mostly freshman boys—will be playing at Garner. Then on Tuesday we’ll have mass in Spanish for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
 Tuesday night the JV and varsity Bears host Lake Mills. Wednesday we’ll have a jeans day to support a conference project with the Salvation Army in Mason City.

 We’ll dismiss at 1:30 Wednesday for a teacher inservice session. That night the middle school and high school band students will have their Christmas concert in Friedmann Auditorium.

 Thursday we’ll have a speaker on vocations. That night there’s a J-J-V game, with the Bears hosting Eagle Grove. Then on Friday we’ll have the meal packaging project.

 Friday night the Bears will travel to Eagle Grove for a basketball quad. Then next Saturday there’s a math team competition at Garrigan, and the quiz bowl team competes at South O’Brien in Paullina.

 That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.