THE BEAR FACTS
September 10, 2022

Good morning! I’m Gavin Swift!

I’m Reagan Murphy!

And I’m Joey Doerning! Welcome back to the “Bear Facts”, the show where each week we bring you all the news from Bishop Garrigan High School.

We just finished up our third week of school, and the year is off to a pretty good start. There are lots of new faces among the staff at Garrigan this year, but most of them are in the elementary wing and at Seton. There are just two new staff members at the high school. One of them is Vera Scrivner, who has taken over duties as youth librarian. She says she wants to connect kids with books and make them feel more positive about reading.

Also new at Garrigan this fall is Rachel Vaske, who teaches theology and serves as the Director of Campus Ministry. Mrs. Vaske studied music as well as religion at college, and she’ll use that background as she helps plan masses and other religious services. There is a third new teacher, Laura Schafer. She mostly teaches junior high, but she also has one section of freshman science each day. Welcome to all the new teachers in our school.

Rehearsals are well underway for the BGHS fall musical. The music and drama departments are working together to produce The Wizard of Oz, and dates for the show are November 4 and 5. Savannah Waechter will star as Dorothy, Sam Plathe will play the Scarecrow, Nate Bronk is the Tin Man, and Benjy Trainer will be the Cowardly Lion.

Other featured roles include Eva Snyder as the Wicked Witch of the West, Joey Doerning as Glinda, the Good Witch, Maggie Vaske as Auntie Em, Brendan Plathe as Uncle Henry, and Drew Casey as the Great and Powerful Oz himself. Dozens of other Golden Bears will play Munchkins, winged monkeys, crows, trees, jitterbuggers, winkies, poppies, and the Lullabye League. Be sure to mark your calendar for November 4th and 5th to see The Wizard of Oz at Garrigan.

We’re about halfway through the annual Bishop Garrigan calendar drive. Hundreds of calendars have already been sold, but the drive will continue through Homecoming week, ending Thursday, September 22. This year calendars cost $35, with all the income going to support the school transportation budget.

The calendars are printed in full color, and they feature pictures of students from kindergarten through high school. There’s also a listing of many of the activities and sports events that are scheduled throughout the year. What’s more, each calendar you buy enters you in a raffle, where you could win up to $500 cash. So be sure to contact any Bishop Garrigan student and get your calendar now.

We have a student-led mass almost every Tuesday at Garrigan. Normally those masses are held at St. Cecelia’s, but next week we’re mixing things up a bit. High school students will travel over to West Bend to have mass at St. Peter & Paul, next to the grotto. This is the first time since the pandemic that we’ve been able to visit the outlying churches for mass, and going to West Bend should make a nice change in the routine.

We’ve finished installing cameras in both gyms and on the football field at Garrigan. That means that this year every Golden Bear home sports event will be livestreamed. This allows grandparents and friends of the school to follow the Bears even if they’re not in Algona. People have tuned in to the livestreams from all over America, and even as far away as Europe and South America. The school livestreams are available by looking for “BGS Media” on YouTube.
 

Of course, whenever KLGA covers a game, you can also watch their livestream on the Algona Radio YouTube channel. All the Golden Bear football games are broadcast there, and the radio station also covers many games in volleyball, basketball, softball, and baseball. It’s just another way to keep up with what’s going on here at Garrigan.

Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Drew Casey. Here to tell you about him is the man himself, Drew Casey.

Drew Casey is a Whittemore native who’s probably best known for playing center and defensive tackle for the Golden Bear football team. He’s also a thrower on the track team. Drew has been in music all through school. He’s in both band and choir, and he’ll be playing the wizard in this year’s fall musical. You’ve probably also heard him announcing here on the “Bear Facts”. He works for Steier Ag, and he’d like to work in agronomy and ag aviation in the future. We wish Drew all the best in the future.

Thanks, Drew. On this week’s Golden Bear calendar, the cross-country team is busy today. They’re over in Holstein for the CYO competition, which is part of one of the biggest cross-country meets in the state.

Monday there’s more cross-country, with the Bears running over in Emmetsburg. That’s essentially a home meet for about half the team. Also Monday night the JV football team plays at West Bend, and there’s JV volleyball at Lake Mills.

Tuesday high school students will travel to West Bend for a special mass at St. Peter and Paul’s. That night the volleyball team will host North Union, and there’s also a swim meet on Tuesday in Perry.

Wednesday is the third turn-in day for the calendar drive. The school board meets Thursday afternoon. Friday the football team will travel to play Newell—Fonda. Finally on Saturday there’s a JV volleyball tournament at Algona High.

That’s the “Bear Facts” for this week. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to catch the show next week when we’ll be previewing Homecoming here at Bishop Garrigan High School.