Glaze of glory: National Donut Day successful at Center Avenue shop
The heat in Butler city left some people dazed, while others were combating it by eating doughnuts glazed to celebrate National Donut Day on Friday, June 2.
Customers of Donut Connection on Center Avenue were especially sweet, buying pastries by the dozen.
The shop is operated by the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, which reinvests funds back into the community with every sale.
Adam Hartwig, senior director of operations, said the bakery was bustling more than usual Friday morning.
By noon, they’d sold 1,723 doughnuts, which amounts to over 140 dozen.
“It was packed this morning, it was very busy,” he said. “We had four people behind the counter serving.”
Marketing for the special holiday had been planned and posted on social media for weeks, which resulted in an abundance of preorders.
The biggest order of the day was for a wedding party with 17 dozen.
Bakers were whipping up treats and employees were prepping the store through the night and past the 6 a.m. opening, according to Hartwig.
“We’re normally done (baking) by 4:30 a.m. We were still baking at 8 a.m. today,” he said.
The holes in customer’s hearts were filled mostly by raspberry cheesecake and peanut butter angels, Boston cream and strawberry shortcake flavored doughnuts.
Many loyal customers dropped by Friday for a sweet treat, including Alice Kuhns, of Penn Township.
“I like the white cream filled. My husband loves all the apple flavored ones, like apple fritter,” she said.
Kathy Kocher, of Butler, bought a dozen doughnuts to share with her brother. She knew it was National Donut Day, but said she always stops in when passing the shop.
“I like anything maple flavored,” she said. “It’ll be a couple of days for us to finish these.”
The doughnuts left over at closing are donated to community dinners across local churches in the city, Hartwig said.
As the day came to an end, he added that more fun promotions are on the horizon for Donut Connection customers.
“Next week, we’re doing a Jeep doughnut. We have cut outs for ‘the Jeep wave’ sign. We’re going to experiment,” he said.
