THE BEAR FACTS
January 6, 2024

Good morning! I’m Tate Foertsch!

I’m Drew Muller!

And I’m Thadd Kollasch! Happy New Year from “The Bear Facts” and all of us at Bishop Garrigan High School.

If you come to the main part of the Garrigan building lately, you’ll probably notice a big change in the numbering for rooms in the school. Most of the room numbers originally dated to when the school first opened in 1959, and there were a lot of weird quirks to them. The lowest-numbered room, for instance, used to be Room 9. There were rooms like 39-A and 39-B that decades ago were split apart from what was once a big study hall. Nobody really knew what numbers the band and choir rooms were supposed to have, and some rooms—like Mrs. Schaefffer’s, which was once part of the library—didn’t have any number at all.

The new numbering system makes a lot more sense. It starts with Room 1 in the elementary area at the north end of the building and just counts up—even including the south classroom that was added with the new gym. Even the “little house” where resource classes are held and small rooms used by reading teachers have new numbers. New black and gold room number signs started going up this week, and they should make it quite a bit easier for visitors to find their way around the building.

Right before Christmas there was some sad news around Kossuth County. An explosion up in Burt destroyed a home and killed Marvin Tripp, a Garrigan alumnus from the 1960s. The explosion also injured Donna Tripp, who worked for many years as a custodian at Garrigan and lately has been a helpful smile at the Algona Hy-Vee store.

The high school student council members attended Marvin Tripp’s funeral on Thursday, and we had a special fundraiser meal to help out Donna and her family at the Bears’ game against West Hancock last night. Hy-Vee has established a Go Fund Me page to support the family, and we encourage anyone who can help out to contribute.

Right before Christmas auditions were held for Garrigan’s 2024 spring play. Don’t Drink the Water is a comedy that says it combines “hot and cold running spies, a drip from the embassy, and a flood of laughs”. Cheryl Trainer will be directing the show, and performances will be at 7pm on March 15 and 16. Be sure to mark your calendar to see Don’t Drink the Water.

Some new students began coming to Garrigan shortly before Christmas. Freshman Jenni Vargas and eighth grader Diego Vargas are now part of the Garrigan family. They’re among the first students we’ve had whose native language isn’t English, but they’re gradually getting used to classes and to the daily routine. We’re pleased to welcome Jenni and Diego to Bishop Garrigan.

Throughout Advent students at Garrigan and Seton collected money to help out Divine Mercy’s sister parish in Haiti. The money we raised will go to send cows to families in Haiti, which they can use for milk and eventually meat, and also to breed to provide more cows for other people. Garrigan students raised more than $7,000, and an anonymous donor provided matching funds that took the total over $10,000. Thanks to everyone who helped out with the Cows for Haiti project.

Garrigan graduate Tommy Kollasch had a more memorable Christmas than most of us. Tommy is in seminary and has been studying in the Vatican. At Pope Francis’ midnight mass on Christmas Eve, he led the procession into St. Peter’s Basilica and held incense during the mass. Tommy often served as an altar boy in his native Bancroft and at school masses, but it’s got to be a much bigger honor to serve mass for the Pope. There’s a link on the main page of bggoldenbrears.org where you can watch the YouTube video of midnight mass from the Vatican.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Zach Warren. Here to tell you about him is Daniel Meis.

Zach Warren grew up in Riverside, California. He came to his mom’s hometown of Algona during the COVID pandemic, and he has spent most of his high school years with us at Garrigan. Zach’s biggest activity has probably been DECA, where he’s placed at state and gone on to national competition. He’ll also be part of the group heading to national quiz bowl next summer. We’re glad to have Zach in the Garrigan Class of 2024, and we wish him good luck in the future.

Thanks, Daniel. On our Golden Bear calendar today there’s the North Iowa Bandmastrers Honor Band at NIACC in Mason City. Corbin Darling will be playing his baritone at the event.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Epiphany, which ends the Christmas season. Next Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday we’ll have semester tests at the high school. There’s a special schedule, and we’ll have open campus whenever we don’t have tests.

Tuesday there’s a basketball quad at Belmond Klemme. There’s also wrestling that day at Estherville. Wednesday there’s no school because of a teacher inservice.

Thursday there’s more basketball, with the Bears traveling to Mason City Newman. There’s a swim meet in Ames Thursday night, and there’s also wrestling at Algona High. Then we’ll wrap up semester tests on Friday.

Finally this week we want to offer our prayers and concern for those who were victims of the school shooting last Thursday in Perry. Nobody should have to worry about violence when they go to school, and we need to keep things like this from happening in the future.

That’s our first “Bear Facts” of 2024. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in every week for all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.