The Bear Facts
February 1, 2014
Good morning! I’m Brittany Kirsch!
I’m Taylor Hovey!
And I’m Kara Eischen! Thanks for joining us for the “Bear Facts”, your weekly radio update from Bishop Garrigan High School.
This past week we’ve been celebrating Catholic Schools Week here at Garrigan. This year’s nationwide theme celebrated “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and Service”. While things were condensed a bit because of the bad weather early in the week, we still had a good celebration. One of the most fun parts was “Throwback Day” on Tuesday, where everyone dressed in old-time Garrigan apparel.
There were lots of special events—like mass with Bishop Nickless, visits to area nursing homes, special service projects, and a free movie at the end of the week. Senior Jake Hamilton also produced a special video, which was presented to the school on Wednesday.
Jake is one of seniors who has spent the past week in Haiti as part of a mission project at St. Jean de Chantal, the sister parish of St. Cecelia’s in Algona. He flew to Haiti together with Emma Plath, Erin Quinlin, Vanessa Dodds, Hunter Theesfeld, and Sophia Kaduce, plus several adults from the church. They’ve spent the past week helping people in need, and they’ll be returning to Iowa this weekend.
Last weekend Bishop Garrigan had eight events entered at the district large group speech contest at Algona High. The Bears had a great day, taking home six Division One (or “Excellent”) ratings. Groups receiving Ones include two improvisation groups: one with Kara Eischen and Sean Hart, and another with Levi Bernhard and Nick Bronk. The musical theatre presentation from Titanic with Mark Fakler and Christian Matthews also earned top honors.
Two ensemble acting selections also received Ones. The first was “Space Quest” with Mark Fakler, Betty Straub, and Morgan Frideres; and the other was “Spin the Bottle” featuring Chloe Garman and Levi Capesius. The Bears’ final Division One rating was in Radio Broadcasting—with the group of Jake Hamilton, Mariah Bronk, Levi Capesius, Taylor Illg, Nick Bronk, and Nick Kayser.
All the Division One winners now advance to the state large group speech contest, which will be held next Saturday in Spencer. You can see all the award-winning performances at the annual Speech Spectacular, which will be held next Wednesday night, February 5, at 6:30pm. Congratulations to Coaches Mary McCall and David Burrow, and the speech team!
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Vanessa Dodds. Vanessa’s biggest activities in high school have been volleyball and track. She’s also on the tech crew for plays and other fine arts events, and she’s active in Christian Leadership in Action. Vanessa is one of the seniors who spent the past week on a mission trip in Haiti. She’s looking at a health-related career after college, and we wish her all the best in the future.
On our Golden Bear calendar, today the basketball teams host Garner—Hayfield,
with the games starting at 6pm. The junior parents will be serving a sausage sandwich supper during the games to raise money for after-prom.
Intramural basketball continues tomorrow, with two games that were postponed because of the blizzard warning last week. Then Monday is the Feast of St. Blaise, and we’ll have the annual Blessing of the Throats.
Monday night the freshman basketball teams host Algona High. Then on Tuesday the JV and varsity Bears welcome Clear Lake. The baseball and softball teams will be serving a dinner at the games.
We’ll have mass Wednesday morning, and that night is the annual Speech Spectacular, showcasing all the events in large-group speech. Then on Thursday there’s freshman basketball at Mason City Newman.
Next Friday is Senior Night for the Bears, as they take on Algona High. The JV games will be across town, with the varsity here at Garrigan.
Finally next Saturday the volleyball team will host an adult tournament here at Garrigan. There’s also state large group speech contest over in Spencer.
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.
TS 1/28/14
