Customers streamed into a LaMar’s Donuts shop Friday morning, most to satisfy a sweet tooth, or two, on National Doughnut Day.
Cecilia and Bob Peterson of Denver — with their 3-year-old son, Zane, in tow — bought a dozen doughnuts for staffers and students at Renaissance Children’s Center in Lakewood, where Zane was celebrating his last day of attendance.
Smacking down the last bite of a doughnut, Zane alternately stomped his feet and spun around and around in a happy dance as he proudly announced: “I ate it all up!”
Cecilia, carrying the doughnuts, gave Zane a cheer, and Bob patted his son on the head.
Inside the store, at West Sixth Avenue and Kalamath Street, Gillian McCune and her 13-year-old daughter, Lilly Lungren, bought doughnuts to celebrate the girl’s first day of her new summer job as a page at Denver’s historic Molly Brown House Museum.
“Can I get a glazed doughnut?” Lilly asked her mother.
Mom’s reply: “Sure!”
McCune said they live nearby. “We can smell the doughnuts every day,” she said. “Every day we’re tempted.”
Lilly said Bavarian cream is her favorite.
Shop owner Paul Villa Maria and his employees were ready for this morning’s onslaught. His 13-year-old son, Zach, was on hand to help as well.
Dressed in a blue LaMar’s corporate shirt and hair neatly combed, Zach looked, and worked, like a budding businessman. He greeted customers at the door and asked if they’d like a free doughnut to celebrate the special day, started by the Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to help raise funds during the Great Depression and commemorate the work of the “doughnut lassies” who fed the tasty confection to American soldiers.
Zach said his dad’s business is partnering with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and he suggested a dollar donation.
On summer break from Ute Meadows Elementary School in Littleton, Zach said he enjoys helping with the family business. He also gets to satisfy his doughnut craving.
“I like all of them,” he said. “But if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the White Fluff.”
Paul Villa Maria said National Doughnut Day, held on the first Friday in June, is one of the three busiest of the year. The other two are Father’s Day and Mother’s Day.
He expected his shop, to move about 5,000 doughnuts Friday.
“He’s the future proprietor,” Villa Maria said, nodding at Zach. “So I can sit at home in my chair.”
