The Bear Facts
January 25, 2025


Good morning! I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Tate Foertsch!

And I’m Trayton Cink! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, where we’re getting ready for Catholic Schools Week here at Bishop Garrigan High School.

For the past fifty years Catholic Schools Week has been celebrated around the country to honor the difference that Catholic schools make. The Catholic Schools Week theme for 2025 is “United in Faith and Community”, and we’ll be celebrating all next week at Garrigan and Seton. This weekend education will be a theme at mass, and families are encouraged to wear Garrigan clothing to church.

Monday’s theme is “Hats Off to Catholic Schools”, and everyone is encouraged to wear hats to school. We’ll start the day with an all-school mass, and before the service Algona Mayor Rick Murphy will officially proclaim the start of the week. All week long after morning prayer we’ll have special trivia questions to answer about Garrigan.

Tuesday is Staff Appreciation Day, and staff will be honored at the basketball games when Garrigan hosts Garner that night. Wednesday’s theme is “Walking in Jesus’ footsteps”. Students can dress like saints, and we’ll have a special all-school living rosary that morning. There will be a special presentation on Christian music, and in the afternoon we’ll have a Bible trivia contest.

Wednesday night we’ll have our annual Community Celebration. Food and drinks will be served, and friends are invited to come and celebrate our school. Thursday is Community Appreciation Day. Different groups will work on service projects such as collections for the food pantry and visits to area nursing homes.

Friday is Student Appreciation Day. It’s an out-of-uniform day, and there will be lots of fun activities. At the high school different groups will be bowling, ice skating, and ice fishing, learning new art techniques, and going to movies. The Chamber of Commerce will also hold their coffee at Garrigan Friday morning. With everything going on, it should be a lively and exciting week.

This morning fifteen Garrigan students are down in Manson for the district large-group speech contest. The Bears have three entries in the event. First on the schedule, Thadd Kollasch, Tate Foertsch, and Brady Galligan will compete in Radio Broadcasting at 9:40 this morning. Later in the day, around 11:40, Scott Bormann, Shiloh Trainer, and Madelyn Tigges are entered in Group Improvisation.

The Bears’ biggest entry in Readers’ Theatre, where they’ll present a melodrama set in the old west. Wait ‘Til the Sun Shines, Nellie will hit the stage at 10:10am. Sacha Alesch is the heroine, and Molly Peterson is her struggling mother. Tate Foertsch is the evil villain, Thadd Kollasch is his assistant, and Aidan Deitering plays the hero.

Others in Readers Theatre are Ava Roethler, Shiloh Trainer, Aubrey Meyer, Harper Nelson, Madelyn Tigges, Gabby Buscher, Kylie Capesius, and Alice Casey. David Burrow is the head speech coach at Bishop Garrigan, and Maureen Meis will also be accompanying the group to contest today. Best wishes, speech!

Our Senior Spotlight for Catholic Schools Week shines on Owen Murphy. Here to tell you about him is Daniel Meis.

Owen Murphy is probably best known for his accomplishments in sports. His skills in catching and running with a football helped lead the Golden Bears to two state appearances. Owen has also competed at state track, both individually and with relays. You may have also heard him announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. Owen is an honor society member, and he challenges himself with college classes like Calculus. He’ll be off to college next year, and we wish him all the best in the future.

Thanks, Beegz. On our Golden Bear calendar there’s district large group speech contest today at Manson. Also today there’s a home wrestling tournament at Algona High.

Tomorrow at 1:30 is the K.C. Free Throw Contest. Catholic Schools Week begins tomorrow with a salute to education at Sunday masses.

Monday is our big Catholic Schools Week mass. That night the JJV basketball teams play at Garner. Tuesday the JV and varsity teams play Garner. We’ll honor both staff and law enforcement at the games, and the music department is serving a special meal.

Wednesday we’ll have a living rosary at 9am. The event will be livestreamed on the Bishop Garrigan YouTube page. The Bible Bowl trivia contest will be at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, and at 7pm we’ll have our community celebration.

Thursday at 6:30 the JJV basketball team plays at North Union. Friday the chamber coffee will be at Garrigan at 9:30am. We’ll have fun activities that day, and Friday night the basketball teams travel to Armstrong to play North Union.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.