Gadgets similar to this simple cylindrical cutter for creating doughnuts have existed since the 1850s.
u Salvation Army Adjutant Helen Purviance, shown here in 1917, is said to have pro- duced the first doughnut the Salvation Army ever made for US troops in France during World War I.
of funds around this time, prompting the BPO Elks to leap into action. Working together, the Elks War Relief Commission and local lodges helped the Salvation Army raise the funds it
needed to continue its important work in support of US troops overseas. In many cases, the Elks completely paid for the fund-raising campaigns. Altogether, the Salvation Army was
able to send about 250 of its members to France during World War I to provide US soldiers fighting there with comfort and assistance. Doughnuts entered the picture when two Salvation Army volunteers, Adjutant Helen Purviance and Ensign Margaret Sheldon, arrived in the trenches in 1917 as part of the Salvation Army’s efforts to aid the US Army’s First Division. Deciding they could cheer up the weary soldiers with a taste of home cooking, the women fried doughnuts in steel army helmets and garbage pails on a potbellied
Long lines of US soldiers waited in the mud outside makeshift
doughnut shops for a little taste of home.
stove. Long lines of US soldiers waited in the mud outside the makeshift doughnut shop for a little taste of home, and before long, Salvation Army “Doughnut Girls” and “Doughnut Lassies,” as the women became known, were working around the clock, serving as many as nine thousand doughnuts a day along the front line trenches.
u In this photo, dated November 11, 1918, two Salvation Army “Doughnut Girls” or “Doughnut Lassies” serve doughnuts to frontline soldiers on the last day of World War I.
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E
In addressing the Grand Lodge session in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1919, Salvation Army USA Na- tional Commander Evangeline Booth
39
PHOTO: ©NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY/CORBIS
PHOTO: ©MASCARUCCI/CORBIS
PHOTO: THE SALVATION ARMY INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE CENTRE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84