Hungry Horse News

Heather Turner got at least one Christmas gift she didn't expect.

On Christmas Eve, members of Riverside Vineyard Church in Kalispell bought 50 dozen doughnuts from Sunrise Bakery in Columbia Falls and delivered them to unsuspecting holiday workers. Turner, who works at Super 8 in Columbia Heights, was one of them.

She came around a corner at 10 p.m. and saw a woman delivering doughnuts. Turner was there was because she was covering someone else's shift.

The woman from the church gave her six doughnuts and wished her a merry Christmas. The woman said they were handing them out to anyone working during the holiday.

"I thought that was awesome, that somebody was recognizing the people that were working for the holidays," Turner said. "Even though they had the night off, they were still making it nice to be out there working."

Turner took the doughnuts home and shared them with her family. They ate them for breakfast.

John Arends, who does technical support at the church, was one of the donut distributors. He said they tried to go to every business that had a light on, including motels, casinos, restaurants, the fire station, the police station, the hospital and gas stations. They mostly delivered around Kalispell, but they did have a team in Columbia Falls.

Riverside chose to buy from Sunrise Bakery because they wanted the highest quality.

"We were told they had the best doughnuts around," Arends said "We wanted to give people the best thing we could get- instead of Little Debbie doughnuts."

This was the second year Riverside has delivered doughnuts on the holiday. They got the idea from a church in Dayton, Ohio, which has done this for many years. Riverside also wants to make it an annual tradition.

"For a lot people, it's their favorite part of Christmas Eve," Arends said. "It's just so fun to see the look on people's faces. You give them the doughnuts, and they're just shocked that someone cares enough to visit them on Christmas Eve."