(jingle bells)
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas, everybody! I’m Levi Bernhard!
I’m Erin Quinlin!
I’m Kara Eischen!
I’m Jake Hamilton!
I’m Brittany Kirsch!
And Nathan Krieps! Merry Christmas from “The Bear Facts”, where we’re celebrating the holidays here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
Christmas is a time of giving, and every year at the holidays we have lots of service projects at school. Both the student council and the Christian Leadership in Action group bought gifts for needy families through the CARE Team’s Adopt-a-Family project. Student Council also helped sort donations for the Toys for Tots program.
When the staff held their Christmas party, they raised almost $500 in donations to buy gifts for care center residents. Different groups from school have also visited nursing home residents and people with special needs. The Christian Leadership class has also been making crafts with preschool kids, and choir members have sung their madrigal songs for service clubs and care center residents.
One of the biggest service projects is still to come. In late January six Garrigan seniors will be heading on a mission trip to Haiti. Jake Hamilton, Erin Quinlin, Emma Plathe, Sophia Kaduce, Vanessa Dodds, and Hunter Theesfeld will be traveling to St. Cecelia’s twin parish at St. Jeanne de Chantal during Catholic Schools Week. They’ll bring medical supplies and help out with the mission project there.
There were some early Christmas gifts for several Garrigan students this year. The quiz bowl team was surprised when they checked their score from the 3—2—1 contest they competed in at the beginning of the month. They didn’t think they’d done that well, but it turned out Garrigan had the #1 score in Iowa and was in the top 10% of all schools nationwide. Quiz bowl also did well at the South O’Brien tournament last weekend, where they made playoffs and finished in fourth place out of twenty varsity teams.
Senior football player Brayton Loss also had some good news recently. Brayton learned he had been selected for the Shrine Bowl, the top honor for senior football players in Iowa. In addition senior Chris Loss was received Academic All-State honors in football. Congratulations to both Brayton and Chris.
We also learned that contributions to the Garrigan capital campaign are coming closer and closer to our goal. This fall we’ve been concentrating on raising cash on hand, with a target of $1.7 million needed before we can break ground on the addition. We’ve now got $1.4 million in the bank, so we’re just $300,000 away from starting the project. We hope we’ll make that in the next couple of months.
For many years on the “Bear Facts” we’ve had a tradition of giving a survey at Christmastime. This year we asked students what they wanted for Christmas. Money was the most popular answer, but responses included a baseball bat, a snowmobile, an ice house, a shotgun, a laptop, Ugg boots, a Kindle Fire, and a PS-4.
We also asked people what was the most unusual gift they ever got or gave someone. There were some really weird responses—like a fish, an orange, soap, a waffle maker, a car window scraper, a shower cap, a trash can, chocolate milk, macaroni and cheese, ketchup, and a box of air. Connor Garman once gave someone a brick, while Katilyn Fogarty gave a paper clock she made. Carolyn Baxter gave a jar of pickles, Andrew Thilges gave peanuts, and Alex McGuire says he gave a box of kittens.
We asked people their plans over the holidays. Nicole Behr said she was going to “eat, sleep, and smile”, while her cousin Gracie plans to go to Okoboji to see her grandparents. Dillon Walker is going ice fishing and having family time, and Reece Walde says he plans on spreading Christmas cheer. Other answers included hunting, traveling, dancing, reading, playing basketball, running, playing in the snow, and—our least favorite—studying for semester tests.
Finally we asked people what was their best Christmas ever. Neal Koob remembered sledding with his friends, while Nathan Krieps said it was a holiday he spent hanging out with Connor Garman. Jacquelyn Origer remembered when she and her brother tackled Santa when they were little, and Gibson Behr remembered the Christmas when he got Power Rangers. Patricia Brandt recalled spending a holiday in Cancun, and Ciera Hall couldn’t forget the Christmas they got a dog. Then there was Courtney Kirsch who said, “They just keep getting better every year.”
Our Senior Spotlight for the holidays shines on Jacquelyn Origer. Here to tell you about her is Taylor
Hovey!
Jacquelyn is one of the newer members of the Class of 2014, since she came to Garrigan in her sophomore year. Jacquelyn lives in the West Bend area. At school she’s taken a lot of art classes, and her main activities have been cheerleading, dance, and choir. Jacquelyn will be graduating at semester, and we wish her all the best after high school.
On our Golden Bear calendar, the main event over Christmas vacation will be on Saturday, January 4, when the Bears host Ft. Dodge St. Edmond in a game postponed from early December. The JV games will start at 10:30 that morning, with the varsity at 1pm.
School starts up again on Monday, January 6th. There’s freshman basketball at Algona High that night. On Tuesday the 7th the varsity Bears play at Webster City.
We’ll have semester tests at Garrigan on January 8th, 9th, and 10th. There’s a special schedule, and we’ll have open campus whenever we don’t have tests. On Thursday the 9th the freshmen play North Union with the boys at home and the girls in Armstrong.
Friday the 10th there’s varsity basketball, with the Bears taking on Hampton—Dumont. Then on Saturday the 11th there’s an honor band at NIACC in Mason City.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for 2013. We’ll be off the next two weeks as we celebrate Christmas and the New Year, but be sure to join us on January 11, 2014, when we’ll be back with more news from Garrigan. Until then …
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!
(jingle bells)
