The Bear Facts

FEBRUARY 16, 2002

Good morning! I'm Jill Johnson!

I'm Keshar Nadkarni!

And I'm Kim Frideres! Welcome once again to the "Bear Facts", the weekly radio show from Bishop Garrigan High School.

This hasn't exactly been a fun week around school. It's been really stressful for both students and teachers, as we've dealt with sickness and death among people who are close to us. We told you last week about Brad Meister, who died of cancer. Well over a hundred students and almost the entire staff of Garrigan and Seton were in Ames last Monday for Brad's funeral. That funeral was almost overshadowed, though, by two other tragic events.

First there was Ben Geving. On Sunday night this 1996 Garrigan graduate died during a pick-up basketball game at Seton. Many current students were friends of Ben, and some Garrigan freshmen were even there at the Rochleau Center when he died. We all share our sadness with Ben's wife Summer, who also lost her grandfather that same day, as well as with Ben's brothers-Jeff and Jason-with his parents, and with all his family and friends.

Hitting even closer to home, we learned that sophomore Adam Arndorfer was in intensive care at the Mayo Clinic. We knew Adam wasn't feeling well last week. He had headaches that he thought was a sinus problem, but we knew it was more serious when the Golden Bears' starting center missed the big basketball game at Eagle Grove last Friday. His condition worsened over the weekend, and we found out on Monday that he had been life-flighted to Rochester. We've been praying for Adam and his family all week long in every one of our classes, and everybody joined together to send him get-well wishes. Adam's a great big guy with a gentle heart, and school's not the same without him around.

The Bears will definitely miss Adam next Monday, when the boys' basketball team opens their play-offs with a district game against St. Edmond. The Golden Bear girls already had a good start to their play-offs. Adam's sister Ashley Arndorfer rose above things and had a career game Monday night when Garrigan beat Lake Mills in the district opener. With that win the girls advanced to the district final, which will be held tonight at Garner. We invite everyone to head eastward and cheer the Bears on to another big victory.

Next week we'll all be going under the microscope as teams of evaluators from the state department of education and the Diocese of Sioux City come to visit Garrigan and Seton. They'll be meeting with parents, students, teachers, administrators, board members, and alumni, as well as checking to see that all the school's paperwork is in order and maybe even popping their head in to look at classes. The state will be checking to make sure that we're upholding academic standards, while the diocese sees that there is a sense of community and Catholic values. We're all expecting that in the end the local Catholic schools will get the thumbs up and continue to be fully accredited, as they have been ever since they opened. 

This week's senior spotlight shines on Dae Son Lee.

Dae originally came to Garrigan in 2000 as an exchange student. He was born in Korea, but he spent most of his life in Russia, where his parents are Christian missionaries. Dae grew up in Siberia, but now his home is in Kaliningrad, a city on the coast near Poland. He must like it here in Algona, though, because this year came back for his second year at BGHS. Dae will graduate from Garrigan next spring, and we wish him the best of luck in the future.

Thanks, Keshar! On our Golden Bear calendar this week, tonight there's the girls' district final, with the Bears facing Garner/Hayfield at Garner. Then tomorrow intramurals continue.

Monday the Health 2 classes will be visiting area nursing homes. That night the Golden Bear boys will play their district opener right here at Garrigan, as they host St. Edmond.

Tuesday the state and diocesan evaluation visit begins. Then Wednesday night there's the boys' district semi-final in Storm Lake.

Thursday and Friday juniors will be taking a special reading test. Then next Saturday around 300 students from all over the area will be at Garrigan for the district individual speech contest.

Before we sign off today, we again want to express our sympathy to the Meister and Geving families and our on-going concern and compassion for the Arndorfers. We will continue to keep all of them in our thoughts and prayers.


That's the "Bear Facts" for this week. Please join us again next week, when we hope we'll have a little bit more upbeat news to bring to you from Bishop Garrigan High School.

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