Coraopolis girl and her family hope to make a big impact with mini-doughnuts business

For the Gracie family of Coraopolis, doughnuts always make a bad day better.

Frustrated by work or school, they come home and split a half-dozen pastries to melt the stress away.

“One day my dad said, ‘Why don’t we just sell doughnuts?’ It was so random, but that’s how it happened,” says Jordan Gracie, the 12-year-old entrepreneur behind Jordan’s Donuts, located in Fifth Avenue retail section of Coraopolis.

The business offers more than 30 varieties of doughnuts. Each mini-cake item is made on an automated machine. Once an order is placed, it is crowned with either flavored icing or glaze and an assortment of edible extras. They’re available by the dozen, half-dozen or in a 48-piece Party Pack.

Jordan’s parents, Bobby and Cloressa, say the light, airy texture of each morsel and the sugary goodness they slather them in sets the shop apart from competitors.

Customers can opt for vanilla and chocolate or try concoctions like Skittles, Fireball, Swedish Fish, and Chicken & Waffles flavors. Churro is the current champion among regulars, who show up Tuesday through Sunday for a fix. The place makes between 200 and 600 tiny doughnuts a day and caters everything from local proms and weddings to corporate events.

The Gracies, who also own a screen printing and embroidery company in Coraopolis, opened the storefront in March 2018 after a year of taste testing and recipe tweaking.

Jordan, a competitive dancer since age 5, burns off the calories by shaking a leg each day.

Through a doughnut fundraiser, she hopes to help other kids pursue their own dreams.

The family is working to set up Jordance Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the business. They dice up doughnuts and put the pieces in jars along with icing (available in 12 different flavors). The decadent dessert is eaten with a fork and can last up to two weeks in the fridge.

Organizations looking to raise money can order a bunch (there’s a 100-jar minimum), sell them for $10 each and keep 50 percent of the profit. The other half goes to Jordance Foundation to grant a child’s wish, whether it’s covering ballet class tuition, paying for a field trip or helping them start their own career.

In the future, Jordan, a seventh-grader at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Beaver County, plans to open her own dance studio and dabble in the culinary arts.

Her parents are impressed by her business prowess, but it’s her generosity that really makes them proud.

“She’s always done volunteer work,” Cloressa Gracie says. “When we opened the business, the first thing she said was, ‘How can we use it to give back?’ ”

Jordan’s Donuts is located at 1005 Fifth Ave., Coraopolis. Business hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.