The Bear Facts
October 6, 2012
Good morning! I’m Nathan Krieps!
I’m Thomas Bradley!
And I’m Andrew Mcguire! Thanks for joining us for the
“Bear Facts”, your weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Last Saturday Garrigan’s Solid Gold Marching band made
an awesome showing at Algona Band Day. The band took home two first place
trophies for finishing tops in their division in both the parade and field
competitions. We’re hoping they do as well today at state marching contest in
Fort Dodge.
Garrigan will be the first band to compete at state.
They’ll take the field at Dodger Stadium less than an hour from now, at 9:30am.
This year’s band show features the music of Journey. Amelia Golwtizer is the
drum major, and Dustin Miller, Jake Hamilton, and Shawn Vaske all have solos as
part of the performance. Best wishes to director Ken Ferjak and all the band as
they compete at state!
Next Monday the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors at
Garrigan will be getting out their #2 pencils as they start taking ITEDs, the
Iowa Tests of Educational Development. For most students ITEDs are one of their
least favorite parts of the year, but they do provide information on how our
school compares with others around the state. Over the years Garrigan students
have done well above average on the Iowa tests, and we’re hoping that continues
this year.
We’ve been thinking pink at Garrigan this past week.
The cheerleaders have sponsored a number of pink-out activities to raise money
and awareness for fighting cancer. It all started at a home volleyball game
about a week ago, where we even used a pink ball in the games. Last night the
football team added pink socks to their uniforms, and the whole school had a
pink-out on Thursday.
Cheerleading sponsor Erin Miller said that the
cheerleaders had sold more than 350 pink T-shirts and sweatshirts, with part of
the money from each sale going to work for a cure. The four high school classes
also challenged each other through the week to raise money, and we brought in
hundreds of dollars through those donations.
Another big activity this past week was the Healthiest
State Fitness Walk. While the junior high did their fitness walk on Wednesday,
at the high school we all went outside and walked on Thursday. We spent about
half an hour walking around the Garrigan track repeatedly—with most people
getting in quite a bit more than the suggested kilometer of fitness activity.
Members of the student council got a lot more walking
in this past week. On Wednesday they donned reflective green vests to do their
semi-annual Adopt-a-Highway project. Garrigan has been cleaning up the stretch
of highway 18 by Sexton for twenty-one years now. This fall there was less trash
than usual, but still enough to fill five big orange bags.
This is National Yearbook Week, and that’s as good a
time as any to salute our Bishop Garrigan publications staff. Elliot Boisjolie
and Nicole Behr are editors for this year’s yearbook, and Miss Mary McCall is
the publications advisor. Helping them out are seniors Sophie Behr, Victor
Berte, Andrew Eden, Andrew McGuire, Savanah McNertney, and Becca Ricther.
Others in publications are juniors David Klein, Sydney
McNertney, and Aisha Miller; and sophomores Sydney Elbert, Morgan Hanna, and
Maddie Keith. Rounding out the group are freshmen Mariah Bronk, Mackenzie Keith,
and Avriel Miller. Thanks to everyone who helps out with publications.
The cross-country team had a great showing this past
week in the Eagle Grove Invitational. Both the boys and girls teams finished in
second place overall, and both teams had three runners among the top ten in the
meet. Garrigan will be hosting the North Central Conference meet next Tuesday at
River Road, and we encourage everyone to come out and cheer on the Bears.
Quiz Bowl season officially begins next Saturday, when
Garrigan will again be hosting Iowa’s largest tournament. Fifty-seven teams from
twenty-two schools will be on hand for the competition. Garrigan will have six
teams of its own entered in the field. This year’s Golden Bear team includes
national veterans Allison Frideres, Jakob Hamilton, Levi Bernhard, Tony
Kollasch, Zach Kollasch, and Hannah Bernhard. We’ll be telling you more about
quiz bowl on next week’s show.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Sophie Behr
and Melissa Kellner. We mentioned before that Sophie was in publications. Over
the years her other activities have included basketball, volleyball, Christian
Leadership, and serving as a manager for the cheerleaders. Sophie has been
involved in lots of service projects, and she also keeps busy with farm work and
babysitting. She plans to go to Hawkeye next year, and she’d like a career in
social work.
Melissa Kellner is a Livermore native who is a
cheerleading captain. She’s also lettered in choir and speech, and she’s active
in drama and 4-H. After high school Melissa wants to major in biology at Iowa
State, and she wants to work in the area of cancer cell research. Best wishes to
both Melissa and Sophie!
On our Golden Bear calendar today, there’s state
marching band in Ft. Dodge. The Garrigan band starts off the day at 9:30am.
Monday ITEDs begin. The seniors will start the day
late, while the rest of the students begin their day with testing. Monday night
the swim team competes at Spencer.
Tuesday we continue with ITEDs. That night the
cross-country team hosts the conference meet at River Road and the volleyball
team takes on Webster City for Senior Night.
We’ll have a school mass on Wednesday. Then Thursday
several high school students will help with the eighth grade retreat in
Whittemore. Finally next Friday the football team travels to Belmond.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for
joining us, and be sure to tune in next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan
High School.
JR10/4/12
