The Bear Facts
April 11, 2015
Good morning! I’m Emily Riesenberg!
I’m Kaitlyn Fogarty!
And I’m Taylor Frideres Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the
weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Tonight it’s time for Gala 2015. For the past twenty-five years Gala has
been the biggest fundraiser each year for the Bishop Garrigan Schools, with last
year’s proceeds topping $337,000. We’re hoping that this year will be another
great year. The theme this year is “Mad Hatter’s Ball”, and staff, parents, and
students have all been working hard to get the decorations in place and make
sure the evening goes smoothly.
The main feature of Gala each year is the meal, and again this year a
first class dinner is being provided by one of the top caterers in the Twin
Cities area. It starts with appetizers—including Bresaola hand rolls (which are
Mediterranean-style beef wraps), shrimp and Andouille sausage bites.and chipotle
beef tostadas with candied red onions and sour cream.
The main dinner begins with mushroom soup l’ambiance and a salad of mixed
greens with strawberries, mandarin oranges, red onion, and candied pecans with
poppy seed dressing. The main course is tenderloin of beef with raspberry port
sauce, red jacket mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and dinner rolls. Then to
top things off guests will enjoy a mad hatter’s surprise dessert with chocolate
and lime.
Guests at Gala will spend the evening bidding on live and silent
auction items, and there are also the car raffle, the recreation raffle, and the
dream raffle. Special games like the chest of chance and last chance raffles
provide other opportunities to win. This year there’s also a special event for
people who can’t attend Gala, who are encouraged to donate twenty Chromebooks in
twenty days. It all combines for a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to help out
the school.
Last Wednesday U.S. Senator Charles Grassley stopped by Garrigan. He got a
peek at the decorations for Gala, but he spent most of his time meeting with
students and answering questions they had prepared. The questions ranged from
what activities the Senator was in when he was in school (his main sport was
baseball) to his positions on different issues to why politics seems so extreme
and partisan these days. Senator Grassley, who will be running for re-election
next year, spent about an hour answering questions before he moved on to another
engagement in Britt.
The Golden Bear quiz bowl team wrapped up its regular season with two
big online competitions in the past two weeks. Right before Easter they competed
in spring 3—2—1 competition. This event includes teams from all over the
country. Just as they did last fall, the Bears were in the top fifty out of
nearly 500 teams nationwide and were the #2 team in Iowa—second only to
Davenport Central.
The quiz bowl team competed again last Wednesday. This time they were in
the second annual “Think Fast” virtual quiz bowl, sponsored by Iowa State
University. Twenty-four teams from all over Iowa competed in the event. Garrigan
students answered 177 out of 200 questions correctly, and bonuses for speed gave
them a total score of 529.
While the regular season is over, the nine quiz bowl players are looking
forward to the end of the school year, when they’ll be competing in the National
Academic Championships. Seniors Hannah Bernhard, Zach Kollasch, Tony Kollasch,
and Taylor Illg are all veterans returning to nationals. Also making the trip
are seniors Mark Fakler and Dorothy Kirsch; junior Joseph Espinosa; and freshmen
Ben Degen and Noah Buscher. Congratulations to all the quiz bowl national
qualifiers!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Kirk Kenyon. Kirk has been in
football all through high school. He’s a two-year letterwinner and a starter in
that sport. He is also a four-year member of the Solid Gold Marching Band. When
he’s not taking all the most challenging classes at school, Kirk works on his
family’s dairy farm near Whittemore. He’ll be attending Northeast Community
College in Calmar next year, and we wish him all the best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar this week, tonight is Gala 2015. Monday night
the Bears host a co-ed golf meet with Lake Mills and Eagle Grove. Then on
Tuesday the girls track team runs at Algona High.
We’ll have mass Wednesday morning, and that afternoon there’s a luncheon
for girls sponsored by the Soroptomist club. We’ll dismiss early on Wednesday
for teacher inservice.
There’s boys track at Lake Mills next Thursday. Then Friday the golf teams
host Newman, there’s boys track at Estherville, and the girls track team hosts
the Bishop Garrigan Relays.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure
to join us again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.