THE BEAR FACTS
December 16, 2023
 

Good morning! I’m Violet Bode!

I’m Ella Schaaf!

And I’m Abbie Capesius! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Members of the Golden Bear quiz bowl team met this past week to discuss heading to nationals next summer. Garrigan won the Top of Iowa Conference championship, and they had high finishes at two other tournaments earlier this fall. That qualified the Bears to make their twenty-second trip to the National Academic Championships. Most likely they’ll be heading to New Orleans over Labor Day weekend next May.

The last time Garrigan qualified for nationals was in 2020, when the tournament was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2024 team will include five Golden Bear seniors: Ben Greteman, Zach Warren, Sam Plathe, Benjy Trainer, and Brendan Plathe. We’ll tell you more about the trip as plans are finalized this spring.

The state champion Golden Bear football team will have their awards banquet tomorrow. The team’s seniors posed for a special picture this past week to honor Hy-Vee’s donation of “sacks for sacks”—providing food for the food pantry each time the Bears sacked the opposing quarterback. The Bears racked up 39 sacks this season, and for each one Hy-Vee donated groceries to help those in need. Brody Ludwig led the Bears with 10 individual sacks, and Keaton Helleseth racked up 7. Thanks to Hy-Vee for joining in the Bears’ success and helping out the food pantry.

With Christmas coming, we’ve had a lot of community service projects here at school. Last Tuesday the seniors on student council went over to Mason City to help organize gifts for Toys for Tots. Students participating in the project were Violet Bode, Sam Plathe, Brendan Plathe, Lauren Swift, Nick Laubenthal, and Logan Nemmers. Then on Wednesday we had an out of uniform day to raise money for the family of Randy Ekanger, a bus driver who was killed in a hunting accident right before Thanksgiving.

Again this year students at Garrigan and Seton are raising money to provide cows for families in St. Jeanne de Chantal, the parish in Haiti that is twinned with Divine Mercy here in northern Iowa. The cows cost $800 each, and fortunately a donor has agreed to match the money we raise, so hopefully we can provide cows for several families.

One other special project will be held together with the big Garrigan—Algona basketball games that we’re hosting this afternoon. There’s a special Bear vs. Bulldog book drive challenge, where we encourage fans of both teams to donate new and gently used books geared to any age and interest. The donated books will be placed around Algona to encourage people in our community to do more reading. You can help out by bringing books to the games today.

We have mass at Garrigan and Seton almost every week, but last Tuesday’s mass was unique. In addition to honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, this week’s mass featured a double baptism. Seton students Minh and An Hunyh were baptized. We’re pleased to welcome them to our faith community.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Madelyn Bronk. Here to tell you about her is Brendan Plathe.

Madelyn Bronk lives west of Algona. Her biggest interest is probably music. You may have seen her performing at the Christmas concerts for both the band and choir this month, and Madelyn has also been in numerous small group and individual competitions. Madelyn is an honor society member, and she’s also been active in speech and drama. She’s gotten a start on college by taking dual credit courses at Garrigan, and we know she’ll do well when she goes off to college next year.

Thanks, Brendan. On our Golden Bear calendar, Garrigan is hosting five games with the Algona Bulldogs this afternoon. The boys JJV game and the girls JV game will start at 1pm, and the varsity match-ups start at 3:15. There will be a book drive at the game.

Tomorrow is the third Sunday of Advent. At 4pm tomorrow the football team will have their award banquet. Then Monday we’ll begin the day with an Advent prayer service.

Monday night the 3rd and 4th graders will have their Christmas concert. Then on Tuesday morning we’ll have a reconciliation service at St. Cecelia’s.

Tuesday night the Bears will host a basketball quad against North Iowa. The music department will serve a fundraiser meal at the games. Also on Tuesday the JJV boys will play at Garner.

Thursday night there’s more basketball, with the JV and varsity boys hosting Ft. Dodge St. Edmond. We’ll have shortened classes next Friday, with a special assembly for “reindeer games” at the end of the day. School will dismiss at 2:15 next Friday for the Christmas holiday.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for a special show as we get ready for the holidays here at Bishop Garrigan High School.