Good morning! I'm Matt Courtney!
And I'm Theresa Reising! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.
This is Confirmation weekend for most of the freshmen at Garrigan. The students, as well as their parents and sponsors, have been preparing for almost a whole year for this sacrament, where they become full members of the Catholic Church. Confirmation is normally done by a bishop, but the Diocese of Sioux City has not had a bishop for over a year. Monsignor Roger Augustine, the temporary diocesan administrator, will be in the area tomorrow to confirm the candidates. Confirmation in Bancroft will be at 10:30 tomorrow morning, while students from Algona, Wesley, St. Benedict, St. Joe, and Livermore will be confirmed in a join service at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon at St. Cecelia's.
Next Thursday is Grandparents Day at Garrigan and Seton. At Garrigan we'll have a special luncheon where our grandparents and other senior citizens are the honored guests. The guests will also tour the building and visit with their grandchildren. Grandparents Day reminds us of our families and our ties to the past, and we're proud to honor our grandparents every year here at Garrigan.
Last week we held elections at Garrigan for next year's student council. The student council president election was one of the closest in recent years, with three teams of candidates nearly evenly splitting the vote. In the end the winners were two student council rookies who will be bringing new ideas to the group: Andrew Missal and Jesse Studer. Congratulations to our new student body co-presidents.
We had class president elections on Thursday. Eric Goodman and John Reding were overwhelmingly re-elected co-presidents of the Class of 2006. The juniors-to-be also re-elected incumbents. Their presidents are Chris Loebach and Dustin Tindall. It was the freshman class who shook things up a bit. For their sophomore year the Class of 2008 elected Carrie Courtney and Krissy Kohlhaas as their co-presidents. Congratulations to all these class officers.
The spotlight is on the fine arts at Garrigan this coming week. Wednesday night we'll have the annual spring concert, with both band and choir selections. Before and after the concert, you can admire some of the award-winning original works created by Garrigan's art students. The musicians will be busy again next Friday night. They'll be heading over to Storm Lake for the state large group music contest at Buena Vista University.
If you haven't been to the BGHS website recently, you should check it out again. The students in Sarah Freking's computer applications class have created over two hundred pages for the site this semester alone. The main start page at garrigan.unlimitedweb.net was totally re-designed, with all-new graphics and a Java-enhanced look, but the old page is still there for people whose computers won't work with the latest applications. Recent additions also include sixteen pages of photos from Prom, seven pages of candid shots from around the school, complete results for the boys and girls golf teams, and a whole new section on the Class of 2005's senior year. You can always check out what's new at Garrigan online at garrigan.unlimitedweb.net.
The end of the school year is just a few weeks away, and that will mean it's time to say goodbye to some people who have worked at Garrigan for many years. One of the hardest to say goodbye to will be Tom Froehlich, who has taught science at Garrigan for twenty-nine years. Fro has also coached football and basketball, and he's taught college science courses. He's been a big part of Garrigan and a big part of the Algona community for decades. He'll be moving to Ames next year and is looking forward to working outdoors fulltime. Everyone here is going to miss Fro, but we certainly wish him good luck as he begins a new phase in his life.
We'll also be seeing some major changes in our kitchen staff at Garrigan. Head cook Joyce Rosenmeyer, assistant cook Liz Buscher, and long-time hot lunch helper Bonnie Esser will all be leaving at the end of the school year. One of the comments we always hear from incoming freshmen at Garrigan is how good the meals are here, and we'll certainly miss the hard work these lunch ladies have done over the years. Thanks to Joyce, Liz, and Bonnie for all their help!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Mitch Buscher. Here to tell you about him is Anthony McGuire.
Mitch Buscher was captain of the championship intramural basketball team at Garrigan last winter. His other big activity is football, and away from school you're likely to spot him at McDonalds. Mitch takes a variety of classes, including a college-credit math class. He'll be using that college credit next year when he's a real college man at Kirkwood Community College, and we wish Mitch all the best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar this morning the boys golf team is playing in a tournament at Hampton. Tomorrow is May Day, and there's confirmation for the Garrigan freshmen.
Monday baseball practice starts. The golf teams have triangulars with Iowa Falls and Clarion that day, with the boys team at Iowa Falls and the girls team on their home course at Spring Valley.
Tuesday we'll have a jeans day to provide towels for the RAGBRAI campers who will be staying at Garrigan this summer. That night the boys track team runs at Algona High.
Wednesday night there's the spring band and vocal concert and art show. Then on Thursday we'll have Grandparents Day. The boys golf team plays in the CYO meet at Alton that day.
Thursday night the boys track team hosts the BGHS Relays on the track at Algona High. The girls track team runs at Eagle Grove that night. Then on Friday there's the state large-group music contest at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.
Finally this week we'd like to salute former Golden Bear Brad Nelson, who is having a great season in Triple-A baseball-leading the league in walks and batting over .300. Brad is playing for the Nashville Sounds, who are in Des Moines next week facing the I-Cubs and in Omaha next weekend. There are five levels of minor league baseball, and Brad is now at the highest of them-with the next step in the big leagues. We wish continued good luck to our Golden Bear pro.
That's the "Bear Facts" for April. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show again next Saturday when we'll bring you more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.
