Good morning! I'm Sarah Schmitt!
I'm Sarah Erdman!
And I'm Rosalind Kirsch! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
Next Thursday nearly half of Garrigan's students will be leaving on a trip. Over 100 band and choir members will be headed to New York for their 2003 music tour. They'll be seeing such sights as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the United Nations. The band will be performing on the deck of the Intrepid, a warship that is now docked in New York harbor as a museum, and the choir will be singing at mass at a Manhattan church. The whole group will also be seeing Ground Zero and Times Square. Then they'll be seeing Broadway musicals such as Man of La Mancha and The Lion King. We know everyone will have a great time in the Big Apple.
While the band and choir are gone, we'll have our annual Stewardship Day here at Garrigan. That's when we take time to spruce things up around the town and also lend a hand to those who need help around the community. Several groups of Golden Bears will be tidying up around Garrigan and in area parishes, picking up trash along a stretch of Highway 18, visiting in area care centers, raking leaves, and doing other projects to help out. Stewardship Day is an annual spring tradition at Garrigan. It's a break from the usual school routine that is both fun and useful.
Yesterday we held elections for next year's student council. Five groups of candidates were running to be next year's leaders. Scott Stence and Anthony McGuire broke tradition, since their ticket was the first one ever that included a sophomore running for overall leadership of the school. Josh Broesder and Lisa Thilges were the only boy/girl couple among this year's candidates. Others running for president included John Kohlhaas and Eric Cassmann, on Elbert and Colby Reding, and Ben Geelan and Aaron O'Kane. There was definitely a lot of choices, and the votes were split pretty evenly among the five groups. When everything was counted up, though, the winners were Eric Cassmann and John Kohlhaas. Congratulations to next year's student body co-presidents!
Gala 2003 was a big success! Development director Diane Elbert was pleased with how things went at Gala. The guests all seemed to enjoy themselves, and many were impressed with how hard the student and faculty volunteers worked. Even though the economy is down a bit this year, Gala income remained steady, with just a little less than $200,000 brought in. That money goes toward special projects to benefit students at both Seton and Garrigan. Thanks to everyone who helped make Gala 2003 a magical and beneficial event.
Last Thursday Garrigan hosted a special speech spectacular to honor all-state speech performers from around the area. The official All-State Speech Festival was cancelled due to heavy snow at the beginning of April, so Garrigan hosted this event to give the all-staters a chance to show their talent. Craig Ihnen (EE-nun), the executive director of the Iowa High School Speech Association, came up from Des Moines to critique the performances. Among the performers were Garrigan all-staters Keshar Nadkarni, Eric Cassmann, and Amber Golwitzer. Congratulations to these students on making all-state!
The Golden Bear boys track team is off to a great start. They won the CYO track meet and then the Clear Lake Invitational. Garrigan has outstanding athletes in all the major track areas-sprints, distance, relays, and field events. Four Garrigan students even qualified to run in the Drake Relays this weekend. Lee Elbert ran yesterday in the 100-meter dash, and today he's teaming up with Joe Hellman, Justin Fickbohm, and Adam Gisch in the 4 by 100 relay. Congratulations to them, and good luck to Coach Wadle and the whole track team throughout the season.
HOSA, Garrigan's health occupations organization, will be holding a rummage sale next Friday and Saturday to raise money for their trip to the national HOSA competition in Atlanta. All kinds of goods from all over the area will be on sale dirt cheap. If you like rummage sales, be sure to stop by the Garrigan gym from 4 - 8 next Friday or from 8 - 12 on Saturday for the sale of the season.
This weekend is Confirmation for freshmen and sophomores from the area Catholic parishes. Bishop DiNardo is in Algona this weekend to welcome students as full members of the church. This afternoon at 4:00 there will be confirmation for all the students from St. Joe-Bode. Then tonight at 7:30, freshmen from Algona, Wesley, Whittemore, and St. Benedict will be confirmed. Bancroft students will be confirmed at 10:00 tomorrow morning, and the sophomores from most area parishes will have their ceremony tomorrow afternoon at 2:30. Congratulations to all those students being confirmed.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Melissa Mulligan and Amy Rahm. Here to tell you about them is
David Murphy.
Thanks, Rose! Melissa Mulligan transferred to Garrigan from North Kossuth during her freshman year. She lives in Bancroft, but you might see her working at Hy-Vee in Algona. Next year she plans to attend Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. We wish Melissa the very best of luck.
In her years at Garrigan Amy Rahm has been involved in track, softball, choir, and Christian Leadership in Action. She also works at Hy-Vee. Next year she'll be heading down to Cedar Rapids, where she plans to major in business at Kirkwood Community College. Good luck, Amy!
Thanks, David! On our Golden Bear calendar this weekend, there's confirmation for freshmen and sophomores from all around the area. Also today the 4 by 100 relay is running at Drake and the golf teams are playing in area
invitationals.
Tomorrow Rosalind Kirsch will be honored as a Governor's Scholar at a special ceremony tomorrow, and Steven Kellner will be named as Garrigan's nominee for the Des Moines Register's Academic All-State team.
Monday the golf teams play Hampton-Dumont and St. Ed's. The girls are at home, while the boys play in Hampton. Then Tuesday there's girls track at Forest City and boys track at Estherville.
Wednesday we'll have elections for next year's class presidents. That night the golf teams play Algona High while the girls track team runs at Humboldt. Then on Thursday we have our annual Stewardship Day.
Thursday is also when the band and choir leave for New York City. Then on Friday there's the HOSA rummage sale and the boys track team runs at Hampton.
That's the "Bear Facts" for April. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
