The Bear Facts
January 25, 2014
Good morning! I’m Cassidy Vitzthum!
And I’m Zac Kibby! Welcome once again to the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Today a large number of Garrigan students are over at Algona High for the Iowa High School Speech Association district large-group contest. Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow have been preparing eight different groups for contest. While bad weather means they’re not as prepared as they’d like to be, we’re hoping several of the groups get Ones and advance to state.
One of the speech categories where Garrigan has been most successful over the years is Group Improvisation. This year there are three improv groups. One includes Corey Weydert, Kara Eischen, and Sean Hart; another features Levi Bernhard and Nick Bronk; and the last is made up of Carolyn Baxter, Joseph Espinosa, and Kylie Fox. There’s also an entry in Musical Theatre—where Mark Fakler and Christian Matthews will be singing selections from Titanic.
In Readers’ Theatre, the Bears have a selection entitled “Marlin, Mississippi Report”. The cast features Nick Kayser, Emily Riesenberg, Amanda Altman, Kylie Fox, and Joseph Espinosa; together with Carolyn Baxter, Betty Straub, Taylor Frideres, Taylor Illg, and Morgan Frideres. In Ensemble Acting Mark Fakler, Betty Straub, and Morgan Frideres are presenting “Space Quest”, while Levi Capesius and Chloe Garman perform “Spin the Bottle”. The final group is in Radio Broadcasting and includes Jake Hamilton, Levi Bernhard, Nick Bronk, Taylor Illg, Mariah Bronk, and Nick Kayser. Best wishes to everyone competing in speech!
Last week, when the wind chill was 30 below here in Algona, senior Erin Quinlin checked her phone and found out that in Haiti the heat index was 116 degrees warmer than that. Erin is one of six seniors who left on a mission trip last Thursday. They’ll spend this coming week working in St. Jean de Chantal, the town that has a twin parish with St. Cecelia’s in Algona. In addition to Erin, seniors Jake Hamilton, Emma Plathe, Hunter Theesfeld, Vanessa Dodds, and Sophia Kaduce are doing service work in Haiti.
This coming week is Catholic Schools Week, where schools all over the country celebrate the difference Catholic schools make. The theme for this year’s Catholic Schools Week is “Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and Service”. We’re starting things out this weekend, when Garrigan students will serve as lectors, cantors, ushers, greeters, and servers at the weekend masses in all the area parishes. While Bishop Garrigan was originally a joint effort of five Catholic parishes in southern Kossuth County, today we have students from ten different parishes—as far away as Humboldt and Emmetsburg.
The biggest event of Catholic Schools Week will be a special all-school mass with Bishop R. Walker Nickless. The Bishop will be in Algona Thursday morning for the special mass. Other Catholic Schools Week events include a service project making bags out of old T-shirts, visiting care center residents, a special breakfast for the Garrigan and Seton staff, and an afternoon at the movies for all the Garrigan students.
The Golden Bear math team had their second competition of the year last Saturday. They went over to Iowa Falls, where the JV took second place overall and the varsity ended up third. Coach Daryl Kohlhaas has fourteen “math-letes” this year: Jake Hamilton, Brittany Kirsch, Kaitlyn Fogarty, Tony Kollasch, Zach Kollasch, Taylor Illg, and Dorothy Kirsch; plus Carolyn Baxter, Devin Degen, Joseph Espinosa, Kyhlie Fox, Ben Fogarty, Josh Hamilton, and Danielle Plathe. Good luck in the rest of the season, math team!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Emma Plathe. Emma is one of the seniors who is making a mission trip to Haiti this week. She has been active in church and in the school’s Christian Leadership in Action group all through high school. Her other main activity has been the Algona swim team, where she’s placed in almost every meet she’s entered. Emma will be off to college next year, and we wish her all the best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s the district large-group speech contest today at Algona High. Catholic Schools Week begins this weekend, with Garrigan students helping out at masses throughout the area.
Monday freshmen will be visiting residents at area nursing homes. That night the freshman boys basketball team will play be hosting Clear Lake.
Tuesday it’s the sophomores’ time to visit the care centers. That night there’s varsity basketball, with the Bears taking on Webster City.
The juniors go to the nursing homes on Wednesday. We’ll dismiss at 1:30 that afternoon for teacher inservice. Then at 9:30 on Thursday there’s the Catholic Schools Week mass with Bishop
Nickless.
There’s JV boys basketball Thursday night, with the Bears travelling to Britt West Hancock. Then Friday the senior class goes to the care centers.
The Chamber of Commerce has their weekly coffee at Garrigan on Friday. Then we’ll have an afternoon at the movies. It will be a black and gold day, and that night the Bears play basketball at Hampton—Dumont.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again next week fro more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
TS 1/23/14
