DAPHNE, Ala. — Low gas prices at Terry Thompson Chevrolet brought lines of people to the dealership at 10 p.m. Sunday, according to organizers.

“There were 82 people here as of 4:30 this morning,” Thompson said Monday.

The dealer sold 5,000 gallons of gas — 15 per person, with 330 people — at 66 cents each. Staffers turned people away after the limit was reached, as the line stretched south from the business to U.S. Highway 98 and morning commuters. 

Two motorists in line had been there since 5 a.m., when the gas give-away began, two hours shy of its announced schedule.

Ashley Reed, of Mobile, said she’d planned to take advantage of the event before going to work because pain at the pump has squeezed her personal finances.

“It’s not right; you’ve got to  pay your car note but you can’t afford to drive your car,” she said.

Another early bird, Rhonda Urban, of Fairhope, said she came to fill up her sport utility vehicle that gets poor gas mileage.

“My Dodge Durango gets six miles to the gallon,” she said. “It takes 96 (dollars) to fill it up and that’s gone in a week.”

The economic downturn has put a strain on her family, she said.

Urban is currently unemployed while she cares for her sick 1-year-old, she said.

“It affects everything,” she said. “We just don’t drive anymore.”

For such reasons, the cheap-gas event relieved some drivers; meanwhile, it also helped school enrichment programs, Thompson said.

The $3,500 raised on Monday, plus an extra $1,000 will go to Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation, Spanish Fort Educational Enrichment Foundation and Supporting Educational Enrichment in Daphne’s Schools.

Each will receive $1,500, he said.

The groups use donations to buy special materials for classrooms such as puppets, digital cameras and Promethean Boards.

Monday’s fundraiser came when gas prices are at their highest.

Gas averaged $3.46 a gallon in April 2008 — 73 percent of which pays for crude oil; 10 percent for refining; 6 percent for distribution and marketing; and 11 percent for taxes, according to fuel economy.com — the U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Today, the cheapest gasoline in Daphne was $3.939 per gallon.

It seems that prices will continue to rise.

According to the Energy Information Administration at eia.doe.gov, West Texas Intermediate crude oil cost $72 a barrel in 2007, about $127 a barrel in 2008 and is projected to reach $133 a barrel in 2009.

The remaining months of 2008 will continue to see prices above $4 a gallon, according to the site’s short-term energy outlook.