Not every Saturday, but many Saturdays, when Kalaniana'ole is bumper to bumper with people running errands or going between ballet lessons and soccer games, there is an amiable group of students outside Kalani High School waving signs advertising Krispy Kreme doughnuts for sale.

It happens often enough to suspect that somebody has a "connection"; perhaps a cousin in Kahului who hooks them up or a friend in Pa'ia with a private plane and a sweet tooth.

But no, it's just good business. Supply and demand. You don't even have to recruit anybody from Maui to carry all those boxes on the plane.

On Saturday, Kalani's student body held a Krispy Kreme sale to make money for the annual event called "Winter Fantasy." Previous sales have been conducted by other campus groups. Nobody had to stand out in the rain to advertise, though. The appetite for a Saturday box of Kremes has been established on the east side, and the first order of 50 dozen sold out in two hours. So they got 100 dozen more.

Student body secretary Sui Ling Kwon placed the order online — $4.50 per box, plus shipping. The school sells a box of a dozen assorted doughnuts for $10. They need to raise $3,000 by the end of January, and doughnuts are a lot easier to deal with than, say, making 500 laulau and digging an imu.

Still, somebody has to get up pretty early to meet the doughnut plane.

Student activities coordinator Diana Woitovitch had to be at Aloha Air Cargo by 5:45 a.m. to pick up the Krispy Kremes and drive them to Kalani by 6:20 a.m. The doughnuts might not be piping hot, but they're practically newborns, just a few hours old.

On the Maui side, the Kahului Krispy Kreme doesn't handle the orders for fundraisers — that is done through a Mainland office — but they make the doughnuts, and somebody drives them to the airport.

"Kalani High School has traditionally held its winter social event, called Winter Fantasy, the first week in December," Woitovitch said. "With the downturn of our economy, and the cost of the event É the student body officers were faced with a decision to cancel the event or to fundraise to make the event affordable for all students and parents or guardians. They chose to hold the event and to keep the cost down as much as possible."

So far, so good. People love the imported doughnuts.

"We felt embarrassed to tell people we sold out and it was only 9:45 a.m.," Woitovitch said. "Our first customer bought a box at 6:50 a.m., and we were advertising for an 8 a.m. start."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.