THE BEAR FACTS
January 15, 2022
 

Good morning! I’m Mya Kemna!

I’m Ella Muller!

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

For many years now Garrigan has supported missions run by Franciscan sisters in Mississippi. This relationship was begun by former religion teacher Jake Rosenmeyer, who is now a seminary student. We have provided money for the missions, and we have packaged food that the missions provide to poor kids so they can have lunch on days they can’t eat at school.

In the past Garrigan students have also done volunteer work at the Mississippi missions. Unfortunately those mission trips were cancelled the past two years due to the pandemic. In 2022, though, Garrigan students are again planning a trip to help out in Mississippi.

This year twelve Garrigan seniors and four adults will be headed down to Mississippi to do mission work. Students making the trip are Maryanne Capesius, Mya Kemna, Ava Eisenbarth, Collin Casey, Ella Muller, and Katelyn Cink; as well as Meredith Tigges, Xander Darling, Veronica Capesius, Hollis Bode, Marguertie Fakler, and Meredith Illg.



The students will be accompanied by Deacon Dave Penton, Christy Peterson, Christina Rahm, and Beany Bode. The mission trip will be March 6th through 11th. Students will be taking school transportation southward to the towns of Morton and Okolona in hills of northeast Mississippi. We’ll tell you more about the mission trip as the dates get closer.

There’s another trip coming up that even more Garrigan students will be involved with. The band and choir will be headed south to the Ozarks the week of March 20th. The main destination for the music trip will be Branson, Missouri, where students will both see entertainers and perform themselves.

This is the first music trip Garrigan has done in four years. The band and choir were supposed to go to New York City two years ago, but the trip was cancelled at the last minute when pretty much the whole country shut down due to COVID. With things more open all over the country now, this trip should happen, and we know it will be a fun one for all the musicians.

Another thing that should be back in person for 2022 is the Garrigan Gala. The theme for this year’s Gala is “Masterpiece Ball”, with the big night scheduled for Saturday, April 2. Gala tickets are available from the development office, and there are also tickets on sale for the car, recreation, and dream raffles. Be sure to be a part of Gala 2022.

While this has been a rebuilding year for Golden Bear boys basketball, the team is really quite a bit better than their record shows. They’ve played a lot of tough teams close and had a lot of very narrow losses. Coach Mark Meister is hoping that things will come together as the Bears head into the second part of the season.



Things are also looking good for the future of Golden Bear basketball. While seniors Jacob Leerar, Hollis Bode, and Grant Haugland have made big contributions to the team, the other players have done well and gained good experience. Junior point guard Jack Grandgenett has played hard all season, as have juniors Ryan Noonan and Andrew Fogarty; sophomore Logan Nemmers; and freshman Drew Muller. The JV team has had a great season, led by juniors Nate Bronk, Aidan Hovey, Nathan Merron, and Cal Birkey. Good luck going forward, basketball!

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Lexi Galligan. Here to tell you about her is Maryanne Capesius.

Lexi Galligan comes to Garrigan from the Whittemore area. She’s been in a lot of different activities over the years—including volleyball, band, choir, speech, drama, the musical, and art club. She challenges herself with tough classes like Math Analysis. Next year Lexi will be off to college, and we wish her all the best in the future.

Thanks, Maryanne. On our Golden Bear calendar, Monday marks the start of the second semester. There will be a parish mass in the Garrigan chapel that morning, and Monday night the JJV basketball team will host Lake Mills.

Tuesday we’ll begin the day with a student mass. That night the JV boys and the varsity girls and boys basketball teams will be playing at Lake Mills.

There’s a Gala meeting on Wednesday. Thursday the JJV basketball team hosts Belmond Klemme. Then on Friday report cards will be sent home.

Next Friday night we’ll make up the home basketball games with Eagle Grove that were postponed by snow back in December. Finally next Saturday is the district large-group speech contest in Manson.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.