By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“It might be one of our biggest ever,” guessed one Humane Society of the High Plains board member as she wove her way through the crowd of soup and animal lovers Sunday.

Vehicles overflowed the Deutsche Fest Hall parking lot at the Ellis County Fairgrounds, prompting some attendees to ask if something else was going on besides the HSHP Soup’R Bowl.

Nope, nothing else.

Just the incredibly popular annual event that is the biggest fundraiser for the Humane Society with all proceeds going for care of the animals at the Virginia Miller Animal Shelter east of Hays on Highway 40.

Fourteen celebrity chefs each cooked up 10 gallons of their best homemade soup, all vying for the coveted “Golden Ladle.”

The soup samplers–many make it a tradition to stop in for lunch with family and friends after their Sunday church service–paid five dollars to try a couple sips of each soup. Then they voted for their favorite soup (or soups), placing one or more of their five blue tickets in the blue cans at each chef’s station, and enjoyed a full-size cup of the soup they deemed the best.

The top three soups voted the best this year were announced by HSHP Board Member Dana Schmidt.

In third place was Sunflower Bank with Creamy White Chili Soup; second place went to Lewis Chrysler and their Sausage and Sauerkraut Soup; and winning the Golden Ladle–by just three votes–Auto World with White Chili Soup.