THE BEAR FACTS
March 10, 2018

Good morning! I’m Drew Bacha!

I’m Logan Heying!

And I’m Ashlyn Harrington! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Next Friday Garrigan will be hosting its seventh annual community quiz bowl. This is a fun trivia competition that is open to people of all ages from around the area. Teams may be of any size, with four people competing at a time. The entry fee is $20 per team. Registration forms are available online at bggoldenbears.org, or you can contact quiz bowl captain Ben Degen at 515-200-9356. Please register by next Wednesday, March 14. We hope to have lots of people competing in this year’s community quiz bowl.

Today is the state individual speech contest. Nine Garrigan students are over in Carroll today for the state contest at Kuemper High School. At district contest a week and a half ago every Garrigan entry earned a Division One or “excellent” rating, so all of those are advancing to state. Senior Sam Trainer will be performing in two different events. He’s entered in Improvisation, and he’s also presenting the Storytelling selection “The Real Most Interesting Man in the World”.

Also in Storytelling Jordan Hansen will present “Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type”. In Prose, Bryce Capesius will read “Gambling Grandmas”, Gabe Trainer has “Nerds Are Cool”, and Caitlin Thilges is presenting “So You’re Kate’s Girl”. In Literary Program John Zeimet will present “Hillbilly Love” and Sam Vaske has “Fickle Females”. Logan Heying is competing in Radio News Announcing, and Ashlyn Harrington will perform the Acting selection “Born a Girl”. Best wishes to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow ad all the individual speech competitors!

Last week Garrigan math students received results from the American Mathematics Competition Tests which they took a month ago. Garrigan’s average score on the AMC-10 and 12 were almost identical to the average of schools around the world, and slightly better than schools elsewhere in the United States.

The top local scorer on the AMC-12 was senior Trevor Darling; while Sam Trainer and Ben Degen tied for second. Aidan Koob and Gabe Trainer were tops among the juniors. On the AMC-10 exam, freshman Amanda Thilges had the top score; and Derrick Kirsch and Kelle Bormann tied for second place; and Jack Snyder and Reese Rosenmeyer were close behind. Aubree Altman was the top sophomore. Congratulations to all these students for their high math scores!

Gala 2018 is less than a month away. This year’s Gala theme is “The Big Apple: Start Spreading the News”, and the big celebration will be April 7, 2018. Only 400 seats are available at Gala, and tickets are going fast. Guests will enjoy an elegant dinner, they’ll bid on live and silent auction items, and they’ll play fun games. In recent years Garrigan has brought in more than $300,000 a year to help Garrigan and Seton, and we hope this year’s event will be just as successful.

Earlier this year we reported on two big development projects we’ve got at Garrigan: installing a new all-weather track and building a new chapel. Fundraising has been going well on both projects. We’re going ahead with installing the new track this spring, and while it won’t be entirely completed, we should be able to use to practice later in the year.
The chapel is a more expensive project, so it will take longer before we can proceed. Money has been raised to preserve all the windows from St. Benedict Church, though, and we’ve also gotten a good start on the funds we need for construction. We’re hoping that starting work on the new chapel can be part of Garrigan’s 60th anniversary in 2019. If you’d like to help out with either the chapel or the track, contact the BGHS development office for more information.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Drew Hansen. Here to tell you about him is John Meis!

Drew Hansen is a girls basketball manager who spent lots of time filming games all season long. He’s been in band in the past, and he also enjoys playing bass guitar. Drew has helped out on the stage crew for plays and musicals all through high school, and he also enjoys auto shop classes. Next year he’s hoping to study in Kansas. We wish Drew all the best in the future.

Thanks, John. On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s state speech contest today at Carroll Kuemper. Also today there’s a 4-H art fair at Garrigan.

Tomorrow is fourth Sunday of Lent. Monday golf practice begins for both boys and girls. Danz squad tryouts begin on Monday, and also that night there’s a preschool concert.

Tuesday night we’ll have our annual academic banquet. Also that night there’s a presentation on online safety at Algona High.

Wednesday we’ll have mass together with students from St. Mary’s in Humboldt. There’s an early dismissal that afternoon for teacher inservice, and Wednesday night the staff has an evening faith formation session.

Cheerleading tryouts start Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon the school board meets at Garrigan. Then next Friday there’s the annual community quiz bowl.

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.