The Bear Facts
April 27, 2019

Good morning! I’m Jordan Hansen

I’m Amanda Miller!

And I’m Reese Rosenmeyer! Thanks for tuning in to the “Bear Facts”, the radio show where we keep you in touch with all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

Tonight is Prom Night 2019. The juniors have transformed the old gym at Garrigan into a gorgeous ballroom, and tonight everyone will be dressed up for the big event. This year’s Prom has a Mardi Gras theme. Many of the prom-goers will be having dinner at Emerald’s and spend time cruising around in a prom bus before the Grand March, the dance, and all the after-prom activities.

The Drake Relays is taking place this weekend down in Des Moines. It’s been a long time since Garrigan had an athlete competing at Drake, but we’re pleased to say that this year we do. Senior T.J. Schnurr qualified for Drake in the shot put. While he’ll tell you that track isn’t his first or even his second sport, T.J. broke the school shot put record this past week—demonstrating that he’s definitely one of the top throwers in Iowa. Congratulations to T.J. Schnurr on qualifying for the Drake Relays!

While the end of the school year is coming rapidly, this is a very busy time of year. Today the Golden Bear baseball team is holding a camp for elementary and middle school kids. The 4th through 7th graders will meet this morning, and kindergarten through 3rd grade will have their camp this afternoon. High school baseball practice officially starts on Monday.

Next Friday will be Grandparents Day at Garrigan and Seton. Many grandparents are also Bishop Garrigan alumni, and they’re among our school’s best supporters. To start the day, the younger students will have mass with grandparents over at St. Cecelia’s, and the grandparents will visit Seton classrooms in the morning. Then they’ll come over to Garrigan to join us for lunch, and they will tour the school while they’re here.

There’s a very special event to conclude Grandparents Day next Friday. In the afternoon we’ll be breaking ground on the new chapel at Garrigan. The school’s original chapel from 1959 has always been crowded, and with younger kids now in the building, that room will be converted into a classroom. We’ll be adding a new chapel at the northwest corner of the school that will be large enough to house the whole high school.

We’re been raising money for the chapel project for nearly a year, and now we have the funds to go ahead. The chapel will have a design that combines modern elements with many artistic features that were rescued from St. Benedict Church We’ll be breaking ground Friday, and we hope to proceed as soon as soon as possible. The new chapel coincides with the school’s 60th anniversary, and we hope it gets heavy use far into the future.

Students at Garrigan represent many different parishes from all over north central Iowa. Next Wednesday high school students will be going to mass at one of the more distant churches, Holy Family in Emmetsburg. An increasing number of Garrigan students have come from Emmetsburg in recent years and we’re pleased to be able to visit their home parish.




Next Wednesday night Garrigan’s fine arts department will hold the annual spring concert and art show. Band and choir students will perform the selections they’ll be using to compete at the state large group music contest on Friday. Meanwhile students in all the different high school art classes will be displaying the work they have created throughout the year. The art can be viewed from 6 – 7pm, with the concert starting at 7:00.

The end of the year always brings some special projects for seniors. Throughout the last quarter, seniors in religion class have been learning about adult living, budgeting, and child care. The most noticeable part of this is that they’ve been carrying around sacks of sugar or flour dressed up as “babies”. This is a project Mr. Meister does every year in his classes.

: Meanwhile in Economics class, Mrs. Vaske has been teaching seniors about the stock market. To show what they’ve learned, students have been participating in an online stock simulation that follows the real market. While the money they’ve been investing is imaginary, they’ve been very serious about their investments. That’s because the student who comes out furthest ahead will be excused from the Economics final.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Cacy Steinman. Here to tell you about her is DDDDD.

If you’re a swimmer, you may have seen Cacy Steinman before, since away from Garrigan she lifeguards at the pool. Her biggest activity is football cheerleading, and she’s also been involved in track. Cacy plans to attend Iowa State next year, and we wish her all the best in the future.

Thanks, DDDDD. On our Golden Bear calendar, there’s baseball camp today. All weekend long there are first communions for the little kids, and tonight is Prom Night 2019.

Monday there’s a coed golf triangular with Lake Mills at Garner. Also on Monday the boys track team runs at Algona High.

Wednesday the high school will have mass in Emmetsburg. There’s CYO golf that day at Carroll, and that night is the spring concert and art show.

The Top of Iowa Conference track meet will be Thursday in Garner. Friday is Grandparents Day, and at 1:00 Friday afternoon we’ll have the groundbreaking for the new Garrigan chapel. That night there’s state large group music contest in Algona.

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.