Good morning! I'm David Murphy!
I'm Sarah Schmitt!
And I'm Sarah Erdman! Welcome once again to the "Bear
Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High
School.
We won't pretend it was "bright and early", but it definitely was early when about thirty Garrigan students left for the state speech contest in Sioux City. The bus took off at 4am, and the students should already be in Sioux City, getting ready to perform. Garrigan has eight events entered at state. The competition starts in just a few minutes when John Kohlhaas, Jeff Hellman, Keshar Nadkarni, David Murphy, and Eric Cassmann perform their one-act play "The Last Touchy-Feely Drama on the American Stage". Meanwhile Brandon Rowley, Seth Rogers, Ashley Waller, Laura Kellner, Nancy Syharath, Amanda Golwitzer, and Allison Even will present the freshman readers' theatre "Barbie, Get Real".
Garrigan has two ensemble acting selections at state. Keshar Nadkarni, Rosalind Kirsch, Janel Richter, Sarah Erdman, and Andrea Schiltz will perform "The Committee Meeting", and Autumn Thompson and Steven Kellner will star in "Sure Thing". There are also three improvisation groups. Students involved in improv are Jeff Hellman, Eric Cassmann, David Murphy, Rosalind Kirsch, Steven Kellner, Andrea Arndorfer, Laura Kellner, Allison Even, Kayla Reding, Brandon Rowley, Lizzie Mayer, Seth Rogers, and Ashley Waller.
The final state speech entry is the varsity readers' theatre "Sergeant Peter Best's Lonely Hearts Club Syndrome". Actors in the readers theatre are Josh Broesder, Autumn Thompson, Sarah Erdman, Janel Richter, Sarah Schmitt, Amanda Wolf, Rachel Foth, and Kim Frideres. Best wishes to them, to directors Mary McCall and David Burrow, and to all the speech team!
One of those speech students has an even busier day than everyone else. After performing in two events at state, freshman Ashley Waller will rush back to Algona to play the title role in the Countryside Community Playhouse’s production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves of the Black Forest. The show opened last night, and you can catch Ashley in the final performance tonight at 7pm at the O.B. Laing Middle School.
The intramural basketball season is in full swing, and there have definitely been some interesting games this year. Two of the closest games happened last Sunday. Mark McGregor's team of senior boys edged past Keshar Nadkarni's team of senior girls by a score of 42 to 38. Later in the day Brandon Stone and his fellow sophomores beat Jesse Studer's freshman team 35 - 27. The biggest rout of the season also came last Sunday when Miles Berte's team destroyed John Hanig's team by a score of 152 - 41. Intramurals continue through February, with the play-offs in mid-March.
Again this year more than half of Garrigan's seniors plus a large number of juniors are enrolled in college courses at Iowa Lakes Community College. Iowa's Post-Secondary Option Enrollment Act allows high school students to take classes free of charge as a supplement to the curriculum offered at their school. The most popular ILCC class for high school students is Statistics, which is taught by Garrigan's own math teacher, David Burrow. Medical Terminology, Composition, Western Civilization, and Speech are also very popular courses. Garrigan's students have the option of receiving "comp time" at the high school in exchange for taking college classes. Most students find it a great way to get familiar with how college works and to get a few credits under their belt before they are even out of high school.
Last Thursday a large group of Garrigan students headed north to Minneapolis to help out a Mary's Place, a mission that feeds and houses some of the poorest people in the Twin Cities. The students were part of the
Christian Leadership in Action group. They helped prepare and serve the noon meal and did chores to help out around the place. Students involved included seniors Autumn Thompson, Katie Von Ruden, Jenna Hansen, Janel Richter, Amy Rahm, Andrea Schiltz, and Lisa Even; as well as juniors John Kohlhaas, Rachel McGuire, Brooke Myers, Amber Golwitzer, and Molly Black.
Other juniors making the trip were Jenna Kollasch, Josh Broesder, Eric Cassmann, Ashley Berte, Sarah Mayer, and Liz Bormann. Rounding out the group were sophomores Amanda Thompson, Jill Patterson, Katelyn Besch, Kristi Reding, and Renee Taphorn. The trip to Mary's Place has become an annual tradition. It helps students learn about how they can use their Christian values to really help out those in need.
A couple weeks ago we prepared our "Bear Facts" show, but due to technical difficulties KLGA was unable to broadcast it. Because of, we're repeating the "Senior Spotlight that was supposed to air that week. Here with the re-play is
Rosalind Kirsch.
Our Senior Spotlight this week shines on Nick Dahlhauser and Beth Becker. Nick Dahlhauser is a Whittemore native whose biggest activity is probably quiz bowl. His teammates will tell you that Nick always surprises people by knowing things nobody else knows. Nick also enjoys working with technology, and he has helped on the tech crew for plays and concerts. He'll be off to college next fall, and we wish Nick all the best.
Beth Becker comes to Garrigan from Wesley. She enjoys speech, drama, and choir, and over the years she's been active in any number of plays and concerts. You may have even heard Beth announcing here on the "Bear Facts". Beth will also be at college next year. Good luck to both Beth and Nick.
Thanks, Rose. It's a pretty light week on our Golden Bear calendar. Today there's the speech contest in Sioux City, and also today the girls basketball team is collecting pop cans to pay for their new warm-ups. You can drop off your pop can donation by the Garrigan gym.
Intramurals resume tomorrow. Monday there's freshman basketball at Humboldt, and Tuesday the JV and varsity Bears host Humboldt for Parent's Night. The Health Occupations group will sponsor a supper
that night.
The freshman teams host Algona on Wednesday, then on Valentine's Day next Friday the basketball teams travel to Ft. Dodge St. Edmond.
That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more news from Bishop Garrigan High School.