HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — National Pizza Day is Thursday and there are sure to be plenty of deals for people to celebrate in style.

One of those deals will be happening right in Holland at Don Petrino’s Pizzeria located in Riley Plaza. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., every person who walks through the doors will be given one free slice of pizza.

“We saw National Pizza Day was coming up and wanted to do something nice for the whole community,” Don Petrino’s owner, Sergio Vella, said.

The idea to give out free slices came after the West Michigan area was hit by heavy snow late last year. Vella said that he and his employees decided to reward the Holland Police Department with free pizza as a show of gratitude.

The promotion on National Pizza Day also happens to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of Vella’s family taking over Don Petrino’s after moving back to Holland from Italy. His parents have been in the pizza business for more than 30 years together. The family lineage in pizza goes even farther back.

“My mom was basically born in a pizza shop,” Vella said. “They had to drag her mother out of the place so she could give birth.”

Vella’s parents have since taken somewhat of a backseat in the day-to-day operations and have promoted him and his brother to running Don Petrino’s full-time. His father still shows up occasionally to ensure that everything is up to the original standards, including making all of its ingredients from scratch.

“Being Italian, we have good cooking skills,” Vella said. “It’s nice to have a restaurant that we can apply it to.”

Pizza may be in his blood and he may work with it every day, but Vella said he has not lost the love for the food.

“You’d think we would try and avoid it, but we still eat it every day,” he said. “It’s nice and shareable. It’s just a good moment when five or six people can gather around a pizza and be together.”