Dexter, Missouri - Each year on the first Friday in June, people participate in National Doughnut or Donut Day.  This day celebrates the doughnut and honors the Salvation Army Lassies, the women that served doughnuts to soldiers during WWI.

Let's celebrate locally by stopping in at Faye's Pastry Shop on 216 East U.S. Business 60 and have a few donuts in honor of those brave men and women. They were established in 1949 just after WWII.

In 1917, the original “Salvation Army Doughnut” was first served by the ladies of the Salvation Army.  It was during WWI that the Salvation Army Lassies went to the front lines of Europe.  Home cooked foods, provided by these brave volunteers, were a morale boost to the troops.

The doughnuts were often cooked in oil inside the metal helmets of American soldiers.  American infantrymen were then commonly called “doughboys.”  A more standard spelling is donut.

National Doughnut Day was created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served the doughnuts to soldiers in World War I.  This day began as a fund-raiser for Chicago’s Salvation Army. The goal of their 1938 fund-raiser was to help the needy during the Great Depression.