Whether it’s glazed, jelly-filled, powdered, or frosted with sprinkles, donuts are one of the country's favorite sweet treats. On Friday, donuts lovers across America — and right here in Turlock — celebrated National Donut Day by partaking of the fried dough treats.

Village Donuts owners Sien and Song Tan had their hands full on Friday as they prepared 50 dozen of the sugary treats.

“We started baking our donuts since midnight. We opened our doors at 4:30 this morning and we’re almost sold out,” said Song around 10 a.m. Friday.

Turlock residents Marilyn and David Machado woke up bright and early to celebrate the annual holiday by picking up their favorite frosted donuts.

“We come here all the time. The employees even know us by our names,” said Marilyn. “They always have the freshest donuts in stock and we appreciate the friendly service. They treat us like family.”

So how did a hunk of fried dough with a hole in the middle get its own day?

National Donut Day falls on the first Friday of June and was started after The Salvation Army held a Doughnut Day event in 1938 to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during the First World War.

During World War I, women volunteers would fry up and hand out doughnuts as a form of comfort food to American GIs serving overseas. To honor these women's service and raise funds during the Great Depression, in 1938 the Salvation Army's Chicago branch declared the first Friday in June to be National Doughnut Day. These "dough girls" or "dough lassies," as they were called, continued the tradition during World War II.

These days, donuts are a $12 billion industry.

“People seem to love their donuts in the morning,” said Song. “They've kept me in business all these years.”