THE BEAR FACTS
May 7, 2022


Good morning! I’m Riley Rosenmeyer!

I’m Ava Eisenbarth!

And I’m Marguerite Fakler! You’re listening to the “Bear Facts”. Thanks for joining us to hear the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This past week we had the induction ceremony for the Bishop Garrigan Honor Society. This organization honors academic success as well as achievement in activities and community service. This spring 17 juniors joined 15 seniors as members of the honor society.

The new junior honorees include Savannah Waechter, Gavin Swift, Marissa Rahe, Ashlyn Hovey, and Joey Doerning; plus Avery Berte, Audi Crooks, Garrett Heying, Ava Kemna, Eva Snyder, and Zoey Von Bank. Other juniors in honor society are Maggie Vaske, Ellie Rosenmeyer, Molly Joyce, Darius Goche, Cal Birkey, and Emma Bacha.

Several top seniors have been part of the honor society for a full year now. They include Molly Bormann, Maryanne Capesius, Quinn Swift, Meredith Tigges, Emma Grandgenett, Meredith Illg, Veronica Capesius, and Riley Rosenmeyer. Rounding out the group are Isabel Casey, Katelyn Cink, Mya Kemna, Ella Muller, Marguerite Fakler, Ava Eisenbarth, and Lillee Deike. Congratulations to all the honor society inductees!

Bishop Garrigan art students exhibited their work together with the concert last Wednesday. The show included a competition, and Veronica Capesius earned “Best of Show” honors. For individual works, Ava Eisenbarth’s “Falling” won first place, Gavin Swift’s “White Noise” was second, and Reagan Murphy’s “Darkness” finished third. Honorable mentions went to Sophie Meraz, Marguerite Fakler, Brody Ludwig, and Allie Lallier. Congrats, artists!

Each year Mrs. Erin Miller teaches a class called Capstone, where seniors learn a variety of skills they can use throughout their lifetime. This past Wednesday those students had a special session where they learned self-defense skills. Students like Luke Bernhard, Meredith Tigges, Quinn Swift, Ella Muller, and Devin Becker all participated in the program; as did Hollis Bode, Annie Burns, Allie Lane, Saban Meraz, Meredith Illg, Isabel Casey, Lexi Galligan, and Emma Grandgenett.

Late last month three Garrigan students traveled to Atlanta for the National DECA conference and competition. Seniors Riley Rosenmeyer and Mya Kemna and freshman Molly Peterson all competed at nationals. We’re especially pleased to announce that Riley earned a first place medal for her role play at nationals. Congratulations to Riley Rosenmeyer, and to all the national DECA participants.

If you’ve come to the Garrigan track meets this spring, or if you’re planning to head to a baseball or softball game this summer, be sure to notice the newly renovated restrooms in our concession stand building. The renovation brings more facilities, which should mean less waiting in line, and everything is also new, fresh, and clean. We want to thank everyone who helped with the renovation, which brings a much needed change to our sports complex.



Scrip has been an important part of our school for more than a decade. With scrip, people can buy gift cards for businesses they normally shop at with no extra fees. However, part of the cost is given back to the school to help with tuition assistance. The main scrip website was recently changed, and it’s now located at raiseright.com. You can also just call the school to learn how you can help out by just buying the things you’d be buying anyway.

Next Wednesday morning we’ll have a special awards breakfast, where we’ll be honoring student achievements in non-sports activities. DARTS is an organization that was started to support drama, art, and speech, but these days it goes way beyond that. DARTS also supports band, choir, quiz bowl, DECA, publications, and even our “Bear Facts” broadcasts. Letterwinners and special honorees in all those fields will be announced next Wednesday.

Our next-to-last Senior Spotlight of the year shines on Katelyn Cink. Here to tell you about her is Xander Darling.

Katelyn Cink is a Wesley native whose biggest activity at Garrigan has been danz squad. She’s also a cheerleader, and she’s been active in large group speech and on the track team. When there’s plays or musicals, she helps out on the stage crew, and she also works with the Bear Care at Seton. Next year Katelyn plans to major in early childhood education at Iowa State. We wish her all the best in the future.

Thanks, Xander. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s a dance recital in Friedmann Auditorium this afternoon. Monday there’s the conference golf meets, with the girls in Forest City and the boys at Garner.

Garrigan will host a junior high girls track meet Monday night, and there’s also a meeting for next year’s football team that night. Then Tuesday morning freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will have their last school mass of the year.

Seniors have semester tests on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday morning is the fine arts awards breakfast, and that night we’ll have baccalaureate mass in the Garrigan chapel.

Also on Wednesday there’s the Top of Iowa Conference Art Show that will be held at Waldorf College in Forest City. Thursday there’s district track at Northwood Kensett, and next Friday is the girls sectional golf meet. Then next weekend the seniors will walk across the stage for graduation.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us next week for a special salute to the Class of 2022 here at Bishop Garrigan High School.