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MN's Signa Saunders Remembered On Nat'l Donut Day

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Signa Saunders, of Brainerd, Minn., boarded a ship for France in 1918 alongside soldiers headed into battle with the goal of doling out donuts for those in the line of fire.

She recalled in her memoir, "Soldiers, Sinkers and Pie," what it was like to be on board. Saunders said after reading about the part that women played in the Civil War, she was determined to help if there was a war in her time.

She worked along side the 82nd Division, and would make the donuts in the field.

"So they took the soldier's helmet, and pig fat, and fried these donuts over open flames, and they loved it," Annette Bauer of the Salvation Army North said.

But it was much more than the treats.

"They were mending the soldiers' clothes, and giving them writing supplies and stamps," she said. "And really being there for them ... even telling them a joke to lift their spirits."

MN's Signa Saunders Remembered On Nat'l Donut Day

You can read more about her history at salvationarmynorth.org.

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