Doughnuts for books

On Thursday morning, the entire home economics room at Wasilla High School was overtaken by a Krispy Kreme operation, as more than 21,000 doughnuts, smeared with old-fashioned glaze, were being sold.

The fund-raiser was conducted by the WHS Parent Teacher Student Association to help raise money for a schoolwide literacy project (see related story). Evidently, people love their Krispy Kremes -- the project raised $10,000 for the school.

"It has been a great, great fund-raiser," said Nanette Rucker, who helped organize the event. "Look at all these boxes of doughnuts."

About 1,250 dozens of doughnuts were presold, for $10 a dozen, at various school functions, as well as at WHS during breaks. The PTSA bought an additional 450 dozen, which it is selling until the doughnuts are gone.

On Thursday, people filtered into WHS to pick up their doughnuts, while organizers tried to keep everything organized.

The fact the doughnuts were there at 7 a.m. on Thursday was a minor miracle -- the project nearly fell apart at the last minute.

Ron Rucker and Scott Chafin, two parents of WHS students, left for Seattle at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, arriving in Seattle early that morning. They traveled for free, because Chafin's wife works for Alaska Airlines.

"My son, Joe, was coming down from Western Washington University, but he forgot to get up to meet us, so we waited for a while in the airport," Rucker said with a chuckle.

After renting a truck, they went to the Krispy Kreme store in Seattle and started loading the boxes of a dozen doughnuts each into shipping crates, each weighing 62 pounds, and then traveled to the airport, where everything really started to fall apart.

"Alaska Airlines was having some major problems -- their flights were delayed, and they had to cancel a freighter flight. They didn't know when they could get the doughnuts on the flight," Ron Rucker said. "We were getting a good deal on the shipping, but we had to pay to express them to make sure they got on the flight to Alaska in time for Thursday."

Rucker and Chafin returned home -- sans doughnuts -- at 8:15 Wednesday night. Rucker started calling anybody he could think of, to find a shipping truck to use. The original truck he had lined up was being used Thursday morning, 12 hours after it was originally needed.

"I had several back-up plans, and they all fell through," Rucker explained. "I was thinking, 'I've got 1,700 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Anchorage, and no way to get them home. Where am I going to find a truck?'"

Rucker's brother-in-law put him in touch with Dave Robinson, of Robinson Millwork, who ultimately saved the Krispy Kreme day.

"I called him at 9 o'clock that night and explained the situation, and he said, 'No problem,'" Rucker said. "He went back down to the shop and got the truck ready and parked it outside. I got there at 4 o'clock this morning [Thursday] and headed into Anchorage. He really helped us out of a big jam."

After picking up the doughnuts, Rucker headed back to the Valley, arriving at WHS just a half-hour before the 7 a.m. pick-up time.

The furious unloading even included one messy highlight -- the normally impeccably-kept Mark Okeson, a Wasilla administrator, even got some dirt on his khakis.

"It was hilarious," said Nanette Rucker. "Everybody got a good chuckle out of it."

The fund-raiser also launched a pretty decent rumor about the state of Krispy Kreme in Alaska.

"I'm not starting any rumor, but I heard a good one that Krispy Kreme was looking at a piece of property on the Parks Highway near the Creekside Plaza. We know they were in Alaska last summer looking for property in Anchorage," Ron Rucker said.

"When we showed up in Seattle, we said we were from Wasilla, and they said, 'We know where Wasilla is.' Why would they know where Wasilla is? Some people from Fairbanks don't even know where Wasilla is," Rucker said.