Good morning! I'm Steven Kellner!
And I'm Rosalind Kirsch! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
It's Homecoming time again. This coming week we'll be celebrating the forty-fourth Homecoming here at BGHS. This year's theme is "The Wild, Wild West", and we're planning on a fun-filled week of festivities. The celebration starts tomorrow, when all four classes will be putting up hallway decorations. The seniors will decorate the gym lobby, and the juniors have the main lobby. The sophomores will decorate the science hallway, and the freshmen will put their display up in the English hallway.
The class competition will also feature floats, which will be built Tuesday after school. Each class will also build a hoop for athletes to run through at the pep rally Thursday night. They will also prepare skits, which will be presented at a special assembly on Thursday, with the winning skit being performed at the pep rally.
All week long we'll have special dress days as part of the Homecoming festivities. Monday will be
Pajama Day, while Tuesday we'll go with the theme of the week and have Western Day. Wednesday we'll have Jersey Day, where everyone will dress up in the apparel of their favorite college and pro teams. Thursday is the traditional Black and Gold Day, and Friday we'll keep up a Homecoming Tradition with Dress-Up Day.
The Homecoming coronation will be Thursday night at 7:30pm. Something new this year is that both the King will receive an actual crown, instead of the medallion past kings have worn. This year's king candidates are Justin Fickbohm, Jeff Hellman, Zac Lickteig, Mark Steier, and Alex Vaske. The queen candidates include Kim Frideres, Keshar Nadkarni, Maria Paterson, Janel Richter, and Andrea Schiltz. We'll fill you in on who the winners are on next week's show.
The other special Homecoming events include the traditional mass Friday morning. Newly-ordained Garrigan alumnus Father Nick Becker will be back in town to celebrate the liturgy. The traditional parade down State Street is planned for Friday afternoon at 4:00. Last year's parade was rained out, so we're hoping the weather will cooperate this time around. Then, following the big football game Friday night, the senior class will sponsor the big Homecoming dance in the Garrigan gym.
Last Monday we finished the annual calendar drive at BGHS and Seton. While there were a number of factors going against this year's fundraiser, in the end it was pretty successful. According to Development Director Diane Elbert, 2788 calendars were sold this year, for a gross income of almost $70,000. That money goes to the school's transportation budget-providing buses and suburbans to take students to school activities.
This year's number one calendar seller was Seton eighth-grader Brian Capesius. The top seller at Garrigan was junior Scott Stence. Other top sellers include Sarah Schmitt, Ashley Waller, Alicia Miller, Jenni Erpelding, Melissa Hilbert, Jerry Kohlhaas, Josh Rahm, and Casey Arndorfer. Thanks to everyone who helped support the calendar drive this fall.
There's a piece of big news for one of our Garrigan alumni. We'd like to offer special congratulations to 2001 Garrigan graduate Brad Nelson. This weekend in Milwaukee Brad is receiving the award for Brewers' Minor League Player of the Year. In his first full season Brad led all professional players in RBIs and set the Brewers' system record for most doubles in a season. Brad continues to hold more high school baseball and basketball records than any other Golden Bear. Congratulations to him and his family.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on a couple of our Homecoming royalty candidates. Here is Sarah Schmitt to tell you about Alex Vaske and Kim
Frideres.
Alex Vaske comes to Garrigan from Bancroft. He has played baseball, basketball, and golf all through high school. Alex also served as co-president of his class, first as a sophomore, and then again as a senior. Next year Alex plans to Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny. Good luck, Alex!
Kim Fridres is an Algona native who has won all-state awards for her dance ability. She is also a varsity cheerleader and a member of the student council. Kim has won state awards in speech, she is part of the flag corps for marching band, and she is also active in choir. She will be attending college next fall, and we wish her all the best.
Thanks, Sarah! On this week's Golden Bear calendar, the freshman volleyball team is playing at North Kossuth, and the JV players are at Algona High. Tomorrow we'll put up decorations to start Homecoming week.
Monday night the cross-country team runs at Humboldt and there's volleyball at Clear Lake. Then on Tuesday the JV football team hosts Garner/Hayfield.
Wednesday the volleyball team plays at Clarion. Then on Thursday there's the Homecoming coronation and pep rally. Friday morning we'll have mass, and that afternoon there's the Homecoming parade in downtown Algona.
Friday night the football Bears take on Southeast Webster. Then after the dance it's time for the annual Homecoming dance.
That's the "Bear Facts" for Homecoming week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to join us again to hear more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
