Good morning! I'm Bob Brandenburg!
And I'm Mike McAlpine! You're listening to the "Bear
Facts", where it's Homecoming week at Bishop Garrigan High
School!
This year's Homecoming was dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attacks in the East last week. We remembered the victims in several different ways. Each day we had special prayers for the victims, the survivor, and for our country. We also collected money for the rescue fund-in our classes through the week and at the football game last night. We even changed the special dress days for Homecoming to include an opportunity to dress in red, white, and blue to honor our country. Then we had a patriotic salute at last night's game.
Homecoming was a little weird this year-both because of the aftermath of terrorism and from the fact that we had no school on Friday, and only a half-day on Thursday. We crammed all the normal Homecoming events into just three and a half days, but everybody had a lot of fun. The fun continues tonight at the traditional Homecoming dance, which will start at 8:30 in the Garrigan gym. We'll fill you in on all the winners of the Homecoming competitions on next week's show.
We've got three new teachers at Garrigan this fall, although two of them are pretty familiar faces. English teacher Sara Kollasch is the mother of sophomore Jenna Kollasch. She's teaching classes like British Literature, Elementary Composition, and Independent Reading. She's also the junior class moderator. Another new faculty member is Linda Mertz, who has taken over the high school choir. Many of us remember Mrs. Mertz, because she used to teach music at Seton.
The only really new face on the faculty belongs to Brian Higgins. Mr. Higgins is an Emmetsburg native who is teaching social studies. His classes include Government, Economics, World History, and Black Civil Rights. In addition Mr. Higgins coaches middle school football. We're glad to have Mr. Higgins, Mrs. Mertz, and Mrs. Kollasch on the staff here at Garrigan.
While we mention the new faces at school every year, we sometimes forget to mention the teachers who have been at Garrigan a long time. The record for longest time at school goes to Mike Stence, who is now in his 30th year at Garrigan. He's now the principal, but in the past he also served as Dean of Students and as a social studies teacher. Math teacher Daryl Kohlhaas is second on the seniority list, with 28 years at Garrigan. Science teacher Tom Froehlich follows close behind, and following him is athletic director and history teacher Ron Patterson, who is now in his 20th year at the school.
Every year Garrigan welcomes exchange students from overseas. This year we've got five different foreign students with us. First there's Gudrun Emiliudotter, who came all the way from Iceland. She's staying with Bob and Rosemary Snyder in Wesley. Christoph Gebele and Mark Baumert are both from Germany. Christoph lives with the Daryl Kohlhaas family in Algona, while Mark is living with the Bud Lickteig family in St. Benedict. Carlos Sastre is a native of Spain, and he's spending the year with Joan Lighter in Algona. Finally there's Dae Son Lee, who's back from Siberia for his second year at Garrigan. Dae lives in Algona with Kris Sutter and his mom, Martha Slagle. We hope all our exchange students have a good time here at Garrigan.
We just wrapped up the annual Bishop Garrigan calendar drive. This year's sales set a new record, bringing in almost $69,000. Even after awarding all the raffle prizes, that will leave around $50,000 to help out the transportation budget at the school. At Garrigan this year the top seller is Scott Stence, who sold a total of 66 calendars. Jeff Vaske sold 57, and Sarah Schmitt had 43 sales. Thanks to everyone who bought a Garrigan raffle calendar this year.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Mark Meister. Mark was also among the top calendar sellers. He's a native of the Burt area who likes to have fun at school. His favorite activity is probably baseball, where he holds an unbreakable record with an errorless season at first base. Mark has also been active in track. He likes classes like math and chemistry, and in his free time he enjoys running. Mark plans to attend a community college next year, and we wish him all the best.
This week's Golden Bear calendar begins this morning with a volleyball tournament at Clarion. Then tonight at 8:30 there's the Homecoming dance.
Monday there's volleyball at Webster City, and also that night the cross-country team runs in the Algona High meet at Whittemore. Then on Wednesday it's school picture day for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.
Wednesday night the freshman football team hosts West Bend Mallard. Also that night the volleyball Bears take on Eagle Grove. Finally next Friday the football Bears travel to Manson Northwest Webster.
That's the "Bear Facts" for another week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
