It was another great Friday at RCSE! The club was lucky to have three visiting Rotarians from the Skidaway Island Rotary Club join us. President Jason Jones announced that the meeting for Friday, June 9th, would start at 12:15 PM! This meeting is starting earlier in order to accommodate the speaker, Eric Johnson, and his schedule. Once all Rotary business items were discussed, Kim Campbell spoke about National Donut Day.
Kim began her presentation with her background on historic preservation and her work history. Before moving to Savannah to work for Ethos Preservation, Kim worked for the Coastal Georgia Society in St. Simons at the World War II Home Front Museum where she wrote all the programming for the museum. During WWII, people on the home front helped make bandages for the front lines. They would use shirts, gauze, and any clean cloth they could find. This effort was spearheaded by the American Red Cross.
During WWI, women would go to the front lines and serve donuts and coffee to troops to help boost morale. In 1938, the Salvation Army had a Donut Day in order to raise money for people in need during the depression and to honor those women who served donuts in WWI. When WWII began, the Salvation Army was not allowed near the front lines due to changes in combat. It was not safe for civilians to be near the fighting. However, the American Red Cross was granted permission and continued their work delivering bandages as well as donuts and coffee. These ladies became known as Donut Dollies. Due to this work, the first Friday in June is now National Donut Day in order to honor and celebrate the women who went to the front lines during the wars.