The Bear Facts
April 27, 2024

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Thadd Kollasch!

I’m Drew Muller!

And I’m Daniel Meis! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, the weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This morning two Garrigan students got up very early to fly out to California. Zach Warren and Brooke Ludwig are out in Anaheim this weekend for the national DECA competition. At the state contest earlier this year Zach took first place overall in Restaurant and Food Service Management, while Brooke finished first in Hotel and Lodging Management. They will represent Iowa at the national contest. DECA involves knowledge, organization, and communication skills, and Brooke and Zach will show off all of those at nationals.

This coming Thursday we’ll have the official induction ceremony for the Bishop Garrigan Honor Society. This organization honors juniors who—in addition to having a high grade point—also excel in the areas of activities, service, and leadership. The induction ceremony this year will be at 8:15 on Thursday, May 2nd.

New junior members in the honor society are Alaina Bormann, Izzy Waechter, Nick Thul, Scott Bormann, and Trayton Cink; plus Molly Peterson, Owen Murphy, Drew Muller, Isaac DeLange, and Spencer Doerning. Other junior honorees include Schyler Morse, Griffin Geving, Thadd Kollasch, Zoe Montag, Brooke Ludwig, Daniel Meis, and Hanna Merron.

Fourteen seniors return as second-year members of the honor society. They will lead the induction ceremony on Thursday. Returning honorees are Justin Bauer, Violet Bode, Benjy Trainer, Lauren Swift, Madelyn Bronk, Abbie Capesius, and Nathaniel Darling; as well as Ella Schaaf, Sam Plathe, Kyra Deike, Ava Hough, Brendan Plathe, Reagan Murphy, and Avery Lichter. Congratulations, honor society members!

The Golden Bear spring sports teams have had some success lately. Most noteworthy was that last week Reagan Murphy set a new school record in the girls 100-meter dash. She took first place at the Forest City relays, and her time broke a record set ten years ago by Nicole Behr. Congratulations, Reagan!

As we approach the end of the school year, many school activities are preparing their annual awards. On today’s show we want to mention some of the awards in speech, quiz bowl, and broadcasting. There are nine letterwinners in speech this year. They include all-staters Violet Bode, Sam Plathe, and Brooke Ludwig; as well as Brendan Plathe, Benjy Trainer, Thadd Kollasch, Molly Peterson, Izzy Waechter, and Tate Foertsch.

In quiz bowl Ben Greteman is the 2024 MVP, while Zach Warren is receiving the Coach’s Award. Those two and also Brendan Plathe and Sam Plathe will be heading to nationals in New Orleans next month. Other quiz bowl letterwinners are Benjy Trainer, Scott Bormann, Thadd Kollasch, and Tate Foertsch.

Here on the “Bear Facts” we’ve had seventeen students involved with announcing throughout the year, and eleven of them will be receiving activity letters. Letters in broadcasting will be going to Tate Foertsch, Drew Muller, Daniel Meis, and Thadd Kollasch; plus Benjy Trainer, Ella Schaaf, Brendan Plathe, Reagan Murphy, and Ben Greteman. The Most Valuable Broadcaster award this year is being split between two seniors, Violet Bode and Abbie Capesius. Congratulations!

Every year at Garrigan our senior religion classes have a special unit on marriage and family living. Part of that involves dressing up bags of flour as “babies” that they care for. This year there was another special activity. Fr. Zach showed what exactly goes into a Catholic marriage ceremony by performing a mock wedding where the bride and groom were Violet Bode and Brendan Plathe. While they weren’t actually married, Brendan and Violet did dress up and exchange vows, and Violet’s dad walked her down the aisle.

This past Wednesday we held our annual Giving Back Day at Garrigan. High school students spent the day with different projects that helped out in the school and community. Some of the things they worked on included cleaning windows, scrubbing the bleachers, cleaning the trophy cases, and scrubbing down the weight room. They also helped groom area cemeteries, prepared the baseball and softball fields for the upcoming season, and helped out with Bear Care at Seton.

Our last Senior Spotlight of the year shines on Morgan Antoine. Morgan spent most of Giving Back Day cleaning windows. Her favorite classes include art and Ecology. She’s also been part of the Christian leadership and campus ministries groups, where she’s helped organize different projects to help people work with their faith. Away from school Morgan helps to care for her siblings at home. We wish her all the best after high school.

On our Golden Bear calendar, national DECA starts today in Anaheim and continues through May 1st. Monday baseball and softball practices officially begin.

Students from Briar Cliff will be speaking to our religion classes on Monday. There’s a coed golf meet at North Iowa Monday night. Then Tuesday juniors will be gone on a job shadow day.

Tuesday night is the 5th and 6th grade spring music concert. We’ll have a special crowning of Mary celebration on Wednesday. After school there’s an art show, and that night is the high school band and choir concert.

Thursday morning is the honor society induction. The conference track meet is that night at Belmond, and there’s also a home coed golf meet.

Friday is Grandparents Day. The grandparents will go to mass with the younger kids in the morning, and then they’ll have lunch with the high school students. Friday night is the large group state music contest.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for April. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.