Halifax Mail-Star - Yo-Yo Contest Award Winner felt patch in a shield shape. A cream colored felt with red screen print and likely a heat-cut edge. The reverse shows adhesive discoloration from its original application.
Regional newspapers and television stations across Canada often co-sponsored city yo-yo contests with touring demonstrators. This patch came from the Halifax Mail-Star newspaper (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) and was given to winners or high-placing finalists in one of those promotions. The use of YO-YO® reflects Cheerio's (a Canadian yo-yo company) registered mark, which newspapers commonly used in contest materials.
The approximate era of the Cheerio patch is likely the 1950s to 1960. The newspaper- and television-sponsored yo-yo contest boom; typography, and shield layout match similar period pieces in this museum. See CKX-TV Brandon Award Winner and CHEK-TV Channel 6 Victoria Award Winner for other such examples.
Patches like this were typically sewn to shirts, jackets, or contest sashes and were awarded alongside buttons or certificates.
About the Halifax Mail-Star Founded in 1874 as The Morning Herald, the paper quickly became one of Halifax's main newspapers. The same company also owned the Evening Mail, which was published in the afternoon. Its main competitors were the Chronicle in the morning, and the Star in the afternoon. By 1949 the papers merged to become The Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star respectively.
