Good morning! I’m Bob Brandenburg!
I’m Chris Kohlhaas, and this is the “Bear Facts.” Happy April Fools Day from all the fools here at Bishop Garrigan High School!
More than a third of the school was up early this morning. They’re all up at Okoboji for the Iowa High School Music Association solo and small ensemble contest. Garrigan has twenty-eight entries, representing the best of both the Golden Bear band and choir. The busiest person today will probably be Angie Kohlhaas. In addition to her own entries, Angie is the piano accompanist for lots of her Garrigan classmates.
Both band director Dennis Freking and choir director Todd Herbst-Ulmer are looking forward to a great day in Okoboji. According to Mr. Freking, one Garrigan’s strongest entries should be the percussion choir. It’s a large group that features some of the school’s most talented seniors—including Tyler Struck, Wade MacDonald, Josh Harp, Katie Patterson, and Corrie Stetzel. Good luck to them, and to all the musicians who are participating at solo and ensemble contest today.
Last Wednesday sixteen Garrigan students went over to Emmetsburg for the Iowa Lakes Community College Business Competition Day. fourteen of Garrigan’s entries won medals for being among the top entries in different categories. Lindsey Eischen won medals in both five-minute timing and business proofreading, Pam Kramer was a medallist in both proofreading and advanced accounting, and Jennifer Reinhart received awards in both advanced accounting and business math.
Garrigan’s other medallists included Bethany Miller in business math, and Val Besch and Amanda Hilbert in job interview. Then there was junior Chase Johnson, who we’re proud to say won a door prize at the competition. The rest of the Golden Bear business competition team included seniors John Mosbach and Jenny Frideres; juniors Chad Mescher, Janet Kramer; and freshmen Amanda Wolf, Andrea Schiltz, and Joe Hellman.
According to John Mosbach, the whole group had a jolly old time in Emmetsburg—not only while they competed, but also during their free time, when they got to enjoy the Olympic-sized swimming pool, weight room, and gym facilities of the Smith Wellness Center at Iowa Lakes. Congratulations on their success to business teacher Annette Vaske and to all the Garrigan business competition team.
Last Thursday, Garrigan held our twenty-fifth annual Academic Banquet. The annual “smartie party” honors the school’s top students, and this year there were lots of students to be honored. Nearly half of all the Golden Bears were honored for achieving a grade point of 3.25 or above—a total of 121 honor students. In addition to the main honors, the National Honor Society members were recognized, as was every single Golden Bear sports team—since in every sport this past year Garrigan was among the top teams in the state academically.
Math department head Daryl Kohlhaas presented awards juniors Lynn and Angie Kohlhaas, and freshman Steven Kellner—the three students who scored the highest on last winter’s American High School Mathematics Examination. He also recognized the high school math team, which received second place at Dordt College last week and will be competing at state later this month. In addition to Lynn, Angie, and Steve, the math team includes freshmen Rosalind Kirsch and David Murphy; and sophomores Rebecca McGuire, Jennifer Faber, and me—Bob Brandenburg.
Senior Pam Kramer received the prestigious Bausch and Lomb Science Award, while junior Nick Even received the Xerox Award for Excellence in the Humanities. Six seniors were also honored with the North Central Conference Academic Award, for achieving a grade point of 3.6 and an ACT score of 26. They are Eric Becker, Nathan Frideres, Dennis Gisch, Bethany Miller, Corrie Stetzel, and Tyler Struck. Congratulations to all the honorees at annual Academic Banquet.
Gala 2000 is just around the corner. For the past decade, the Garrigan Gala has been both the area’s biggest social event and the biggest fundraiser for the area Catholic schools. This year’s Gala will be next Saturday, April 8. The theme of “Cruising Through Time” fits the new millennium. As always guests will dine on a fabulous meal, while they bid on exciting auction gifts. Development director Diane Elbert has set a goal for Gala 2000 of between 185 and 200 thousand dollars. We’ll fill you in on all the details of Gala on next week’s show.
Next Monday my “Bear Facts” co-host Bob Brandenburg will be one of two Garrigan students who will be honored at the twenty-fifth annual Iowa High School Speech Association All-State Festival. Bob and fellow speech student Tyler Struck were both named Outstanding Performers at the state speech contest last month in Fort Dodge. They’ll be in Cedar Falls, together with an audience of eight other Garrigan students for the All-State Festival. Congratulations, Bob and Tyler!
This week’s Senior Spotlight shines on Jenny Frideres and Derrick Frideres. Jenny comes to Garrigan from southwest of Algona. She was one of twenty-five members of the Class of 2000 who were honored at last week’s Academic Banquet, and she also was part of the award-winning business competition team. Jenny will graduate with high honors this spring, and then she’ll be off to college. We wish her the very best of luck in the future.
Derrick Frideres transferred to Garrigan from Corwith-Wesley-Luverne. He was one of the toughest players on last fall’s state runner-up Golden Bear football team. This winter he’s part of the second-seeded intramural basketball team. Derrick also plans to attend college, and we wish him all the best.
On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, there’s the solo and ensemble music contest today at Okoboji. It’s also Census Day, and we hope everyone listening will stand up and be counted in the U.S. Census.
Tomorrow is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Daylight Savings Time begins, so be sure to spring ahead one hour so you get up on time. Then on Monday there’s the All-State Speech Festival at UNI.
Tuesday we’ll have a reconciliation service at 1:15 at St. Cecilia’s. Tuesday night the track season begins, with a girls’ track meet at Clear Lake. Then on Wednesday there’s a fifth and sixth grade vocal concert at Seton.
Next Friday the gym comes alive with the Preview Party for Gala 2000, and then next Saturday it’s the big night for “Cruising through Time” with the eleventh annual Garrigan Gala.
That’s the “Bear Facts” for another week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to set your dial here next Saturday when we’ll have a special show taking you behind the scenes of Gala here at Bishop Garrigan High School.
