The Yorkton Wildlife Federation (YWF) celebrated the work of a local couple in the federation over the years. Norman (Norm) and Elaine Lutcher were honored with a special YWF award for their many contributions and services to the YWF and the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation (SWF).
An avid outdoors man, hunter and fisherman since he started fishing with his dad, Norm. He started shooting when he turned 15 years old and has been handling and shooting firearms ever since. He reports that he no longer shoots birds but continues to hunt deer, moose and elk.
A former provincial and national target and trap shooting champion, Norm has coached and mentored many young shooters several who've gone on to national and international acclaim, including his daughter Donna who started trap shooting as a 12 year old.
As manager of the YWF trap Club, Norm continues to trap shoot to this day. He claims to shoot anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 rounds each summer.
Norm proudly points to the SWF flag/banner with the whooping crane on a yellow background edged with a black bar on each end. He helped to design that flag along with Elaine and Elgin Strocen.
Elaine joined the YWF in 1980. Both she and Norm served on the executive of both YWF and SWF. Norm has been president twice while Elaine has served as the only female president of the federation.
She says she's enjoyed every minute of her time with the organization. "My forte was cooking in the kitchen for the trap shoots. Now I do the bookwork and scorekeeping and that type of thing," Elaine says. In addition to the cooking and bookwork, she says she liked to organize the federation events, banquets, meetings, trap shoots and conventions. "I convened the last four or five conventions here in Yorkton," she recalls.
She stopped trap shooting for about 20 years but plans to take it up again. She's even purchased a new pink vest and pink hat for the occasion, she reports. She attended a fun turkey shoot in Swan River a couple of years ago and managed to win a turkey with a score of nine out of 10 in her first round which whetted her enthusiasm for trap shooting again.
Elaine was also responsible for naming the YWF Hootie Owl Shoot which has become one of the most popular trap shooting events in the province for the past 30 years with the owls offered as prizes highly sought by trap shooters in Manitoba and Saskat-chewan.
Elaine sums up her and Norm's commitment to the organization, "Our passion id the wildlife. It has been in the past. It is right now and it will be in the future.
