Kidsday reporters celebrate National Donut Day
Kidsday reporters Dean Fricke, Nicole Steiger, Drake Testa and Thomas Lionetti, with Maureen Sticco, director of marketing for Entenmann's and Kathleen Robbins, director of research and development for Entenmann's. In front of them is the giant doughnut to celebrate National Donut on June 1, 2012. They are in the test kitchen at Entenmann's in Bay Shore. (May 16, 2012) Credit: Newsday/Pat Mullooly
June 1 is National Donut Day, and while you may not frequently indulge in this sweet confection, there are many places around Long Island giving away freebies to celebrate the day.
I started working for Newsday about a year ago, and I'm still surprised about how much I've learned about Long Island, despite having grown up here. For starters, I didn't realize there is an Entenmann's factory in Bay Shore.
Recently, Kidsday reporters Dean Fricke, Thomas Lionetti, Nicole Steiger and Drake Testa, from East Northport and Northport, toured the Entenmann's factory. Here's a snapshot of their experience, which they shared with Newsday:
We were so lucky to go on a great Kidsday adventure to the Entenmann’s factory in Bay Shore. We felt pretty special taking the tour, but then we felt even more special because we were told we were the first group of kids to take a tour of Entenmann’s in 15 years!
First, we met the people who were going to guide our tour. They were so nice. Then, we went into a little room to get suited up in hairnets, hard hats, earplugs and goggles.
We went into the factory, and the first thing that we saw was 1,300 pounds of dough that was being prepared to be made into a delicious dessert.
Next, we were able to see Raspberry Danish Twists being made from dough to package. After we watched how the Raspberry Danish Twists were created, we were each able to bring a box home, the freshest batch of the day, taken right off the conveyor belt.
After this, we saw a video about the history of Entenmann’s. Our next stop was the lab where they test out new products. In the lab, we saw a giant doughnut that weighed 30 pounds. The bakers made this to to prepare for National Donut Day.
Just for fun, they let us decorate our own doughnuts with frosting, sprinkles and chocolate chips. We even got to taste test two of the newest Entenmann’s treats: the Red Velvet Iced Cake and Pecan Coffee Cake with butter filling. We each got two boxes to fill.
Finally, we were able to take home a giant box that we filled with boxes of doughnuts and a stuffed doughnut mascot made just for National Donut Day. We had such a great time at Entenmann’s factory — it was so much fun.
You can see the largest box of doughnuts Entenmann’s ever made and also the huge chocolate doughnut in our photo at Madison Square Park (Madison Avenue and 23rd Street). Oh yeah, there will be free doughnuts given out there from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Fun facts
--The Salvation Army started National Donut Day in 1938 to raise funds and increase awareness of its programs. According to the Salvation Army and Entenmann’s:
--Entenmann’s has made more than four billion doughnuts — if you laid them end to end, you could wrap them around the Earth almost nine times.
--More than 168 million pounds of chocolate has been used for Entenmann’s Rich Frosted Donuts.
