WEYBURN — A large group of past winners of the Edgar May Trophy for the Cymri 4-H Beef Club gathered together at Parkway Lodge in Weyburn, to meet the name-sake of the trophy for the first time.
The trophy is awarded each year to the winner of the Grand Champion title for the 4-H club, and is one of the longest-running awards in the province for a 4-H club.
The trophy originated in 1953 when the brand-new Cymri 4-H club asked Edgar May to come judge their achievement day entries.
May lived and farmed in the Talmage area, but was asked by various clubs to come judge their 4-H projects.
After the achievement day, the club leaders went to pay May for his judging, and he turned the money down, noting the club – which was just starting up – had no trophy for their Grand Champion, and suggested they use the money to buy a trophy for the club’s top achiever.
This was done, and has been awarded to the club’s Grand Champion for the past 70 years, skipping only 2020 when COVID prevented the achievement day from being held.
Brad Eggum, who was one of the winners of the trophy from past years, met up with Edgar’s son Dave, and in discussions found that the story of how the trophy came to be wasn’t widely known, nor did very many people even know who Edgar May was.
When the suggestion was made to gather as many past winners as possible to have a group photo with the trophy and with Edgar, Dave pointed out his father is 98 years old this year.
He suggested this year might be best timing-wise, and Eggum and Rhonda Martinson worked the phones and sent out emails to see how many past winners they could locate.
Looking at the rows of names on the base of the trophy, Eggum pointed out that the top two rows of winners have largely passed on.
Those who were able to gather at Parkway Lodge, where Edgar now lives, included the following: Colin Rosengren, Josh Gustafson, Benji Gustafson, Glenn Wiens, Rodney Gill, Daryl Carlson, Ryan Vandenhurk, Becca Anderson (Gustafson), Pauline Ziehl Grimsrud, Brenda Connelly, Carter Wilgenbusch, Cliff Gallinger, Kendall Eggum (Emde), Kassidy Fellner (Sjostrand), Dakota Dreher (Emde), Rhonda Martinson (Emde), Brad Eggum and Brylan Rasmuson.
After the group photo was taken, Eggum shared the story with the whole group, and pointed out that it was Edgar’s selfless act of turning down the money (which he could have used at the time) to have the club establish this trophy instead, and this was partly what the past winners from the club wanted to honour.
