TROY — After a year of absence from the community, the Troy Music Boosters are bringing back the strawberry donuts in celebration of the Strawberry Jam.

“We’re so glad to be back. We know it’s an important part of people’s summer, and we’re really excited to be able to make donuts for people, and we’re really excited for the opportunity to help fundraise for our music students,” Molly Venneman, assistant band director for Troy City Schools, said.

The Strawberry Jam will be held from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, June 4 and 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 5 in downtown Troy. Due to preparations and planning being done prior to Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement on lifting state health orders, the sale of the strawberry donuts will be a little different this year. The Troy Music Boosters will be taking pre-sale orders for donuts through Saturday, June 5 at 9 p.m. or until the production limit has been met. Donuts must be ordered through https://www.troystrawberrydonuts.com/ and donut pick-up will be drive-through only, in the small parking lot on Staunton Road in front of the Troy Memorial Stadium. No sales or pick-up will happen at the booth. Currently, all pick-up times for Thursday evening are full; donuts can be picked up from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7 a.m. to noon Sunday.

“The best way to make sure we have the proper quantity for you and everything else, is to place that order. We will also be selling singles, as well as tokens for dozens, at the Strawberry Jam, but there’s always potential for us to sell out there. The best way to ensure you get your donuts is by placing that order online,” Venneman said.

During a normal year, the Troy Music Boosters typically sell roughly 15,000 dozen donuts. Due to the smaller-scale festivities this year, Venneman said they anticipate selling 10,000 dozen donuts — 120,000 donuts total. Despite this, Venneman says their numbers look good so far, and all money made from the donut sales goes into funding the band, choir and orchestra programs for Troy City Schools. Even with the donut booth being smaller this year, the strawberry donuts will be the largest fundraiser Troy Music Boosters do this year.

“It was rough this year, not having last years’ Strawberry Festival, but the Troy Music Boosters have done a really great job holding onto some money in the event of a catastrophe like this, so it was a leaner year, but we did okay. We’re definitely looking forward to providing really great experiences and education for our students through different ways,” Venneman said. “We understand that we’re probably going to raise less money than we do in a normal year, but we are immensely grateful that we are going to be able to make something this year.”

Venneman said that the Troy Music Boosters have received donations that have helped kept the program going, and that the strawberry donuts booth is one of the first steps back toward normal for the program. Additionally, the community has already shown great support with this years’ booth.

“We’ve gotten really positive feedback. There’s a lot of people that are really thankful that we’re able to do it, and it seems like it’s a really positive reception, which makes us that much more excited for it,” Venneman said.