The Bear Facts
January 27, 2018



Good morning!  I’m Megan Wadle!

I’m Ben Degen!

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

This year’s Catholic Schools Week theme is “Learn.  Serve.  Lead.  Succeed.”  Throughout the coming week we’ll be highlighting the difference that Catholic schools like Garrigan and Seton make.  We’ll begin the celebration this weekend, when students will be helping out at masses in all the area parishes.  Then Monday Bishop Walker Nickless will be visiting, and he’ll celebrate mass for the school at St. Cecelia’s.

Other events for Catholic Schools Week include a black and gold day on Tuesday, a school-wide rosary on Wednesday, and a service project to send cards to area soldiers.  We’ll have the speech spectacular Wednesday night, with a special performance of our one-act play.  After that there’s a reception to honor teachers and our annual community planning meeting.

Thursday we’ll be celebrating vocations, and priests from areas parishes and deacons will be sharing lunch with us.  We’ll begin the day Friday with the blessing of throats for St. Blaise’s Day, and that afternoon we’ll have a wide range of special fun activities.  We’re looking forward to a great time all through Catholic Schools Week.

It’s been a long time since the Golden Bear speech team has done a one-act play.  We prepared a one-act this year, though, and the effort paid off.  Garrigan’s one-act play, The Brothers Grimm:  Out of Order earned a Division One rating at district speech contest last weekend, and it will be going on to state.

The show is about a group that is producing a very bad play based on Grimm’s fairy tales.  The cast includes Caitlin Thilges, Emma Thul, Gigi Byrkeland, John Meis, Caroline Bradley, Emory Miller, Jordan Hansen, John Zeimet, Ashlyn Harrington, Sam Vaske, Logan Heying, Gabe Trainer, Bryce Capesius, Laurel Degen, Madison Illg, Megan Wadle, Layah DeLange, and Jenna Boelter.  Congratulations to them and to directors Jake Rosenmeyer and David Burrow.

The Bishop Garrigan show choir participated in a clinic at Iowa Lakes last Tuesday, and they’ll be competing at state contest in Emmetsburg next week.  Their show choir presentation is called “Illumination”.  Show choir members include sopranos Caitlin Thilges, Isabelle Davis, Ashlyn Harrington, Amanda Miller, Bailey Kollasch, Jordan Hansen, Tara Kron, Abbi Heying, Andrea Pacheco, and Carolyn Hough. 

Also competing in show choir are altos Megan Bronk, Emma Thul, Layah DeLange, Madison Illg, Lauren Kenyon, Emma Fogarty, Mackenzie Meister, Julia Berte, and Gracie Elsbecker.  Singing baritone are Sam Trainer, Gabe Trainer, Joe Trainer, Johnny Zeimet, Aric Laubenthal, Tommy Kollasch, Jack Snyder, and Marcus Plathe.  Good luck to director David Fog and the show choir.

Next week will be the annual community meeting, where parents and others interested in our school are invited to come and discuss future plans.  Past meetings have led to the capital campaign that built our new gym and also the current construction of a new track and the plans for a new chapel at Garrigan.  Changes in curriculum have also come from these meetings.  This year’s community meeting will be next Wednesday at 7pm, and everyone is invited to participate.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Drew Bacha.  Drew is probably best known for his accomplishments in sports.  He was the football team’s MVP and most improved player last fall, and last summer he won the baseball team’s Rookie of the Year Award.  Drew also runs track, and he was one of the top players last year in intramural basketball.  Drew is a certified sports official, and he’s refereed a lot of area games.  He plans to continue as an official when he’s in college, and we wish him all the best in the future.

On our Golden Bear calendar this week, there’s a basketball quad this afternoon with North Iowa.  The JV games start at 2pm, and the varsity plays at 4:15.

Catholic Schools Week begins tomorrow.  Monday we’ll have a student mass at 1:30, with Bishop Walker Nickless presiding.  There’s JJV basketball that night, with the Bears playing at Forest City.

The state show choir contest is also on Monday.  Then on Tuesday the JV and varsity teams host Forest City.  The National Honor Society will serve a meal at the games. 

Wednesday at 5:30 the state-bound one-act play cast will perform for the Speech Spectacular.  Then at 6:15 there’s a reception honoring teachers, and at 7pm we’ll have the community meeting.

Thursday the JJV basketball teams will host Humboldt.  We’ll have fun activities for Catholic Schools Week on Friday.  The blessing of the throats will be that morning, and that night the JV and varsity basketball teams will play at Humboldt.  Finally next Saturday there’s state speech in LeMars.

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.

eu 1/26/18