Nathan Blake, the community relations director for The Salvation Army in Wheeling, passes out free doughnuts in honor of “National Doughnut Day” in front of the organization’s 16th Street facility. Salvation Army “Doughnut Girls” prepared doughnuts for soldiers while on the front lines during World War I. (Photo by Joselyn King)
Norwich City Historian Dale Plummer has connected the dots meticulously to make a solid connection between National Doughnut Day Saturday and the effort to resume fundraising to restore the city’s World War I howitzer and create a lasting memorial to local soldiers of that war.
Plummer, chairman of the WWI Memorial Committee, recalled seeing a restored WWI field stove in operation at a re-enactment event and thought it might be interesting to bring that to Norwich. He learned that National Doughnut Day is June 5 and that it’s origins are rooted in the work by organizations to boost morale of U.S. troops fighting in France from 1917-18.