BEATRICE, Neb. - For 106 years, when residents of Southeast Nebraska have had a taste for a pastry, they make their way to Court St. in downtown Beatrice to the Sunrise Bakery.

In honor of Friday being National Donut Day, News Channel Nebraska took the time to learn a bit more about the historic Beatrice landmark.

“Sunrise Bakery opened up in 1917,” owner Clayton Replogle said. “My family took over and bought it in 1951 and it’s been in my family since.”

The donut business isn’t for night owls — or, maybe it is, depending on how you look at it. For Replogle, his work for the morning, begins late the night before.

“I come in between 10-11 o’clock and go through the tickets for the days orders,” Replogle said. “Then I start making the cake donuts.”

From then on, other employees begin filtering in and the process begins. Most of those employees, are family. Replogle talked about what it means to have so many family ties within the bakery.

“Everything,” Replogle said. “There wouldn’t be a Sunrise if it weren’t for family… Even the people here that aren’t family, aren’t blood related, they feel like family because they’ve worked here for so long.”

National Donut Day is one of Sunrise’s busiest days of the year. Always falling on the second Friday in June, Sunrise and many other bakeries across the state and country see an influx in customers through the door. What Replogle remembers most about National Donut Day, is how much it drives customers to come into the shop.

“It amazes me how people go crazy over a little donut… it just amazes me!”

For the Replogle family, working at the bakery is ritual. While some kids grow up mowing lawns, Replogle's grew up working in the bakery. For Clayton, that led to years of resentment of the bakery, for taking away time on weekends. However, with age, he’s realized how much Sunrise Bakery means to the community.

“The older you get, the stories you hear,” Replogle said. “People starting the first day of school here, with their grandmother, mother, father and they start that tradition with their own kids…. Last days of school, they come here. When you start hearing those stories, you start to realize, this isn’t such a bas place after all.”