GULF SHORES, AL – As excitement whirls and crowds come to enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the 45th National Shrimp Festival this weekend, there are a lot of things the festival does all year for the community.

And the biggest recipient of the effort is Baldwin County schools.

“We have singing for scholarships with a dozen schools in Baldwin County; we give away $4,700 in prizes to the students and we match it to the schools,” Shrimp Festival Chairman Matt Mogan said. “These are direct dollars that go straight to the scholarships and straight to the schools.

“We had 10 Baldwin County schools participating in youth art, also with prizes.”

Each year the Shrimp Festival Golf Tournament had 144 players and the $8,000 raised goes straight to the schools, Mogan said. More than 800 runners will line up Saturday morning at the Orange Beach Sportsplex and any profit from that benefits schools as well.

“We have school PTA booths on site and that money goes directly to the schools; almost $22,000 raised last year,” Mogan said. “We have a total, of all these school things we do together, almost $50,000 raised at the festival or other events that goes straight to education. I’m very proud of that.”

Other charities benefit as well. Volunteers working in the beverage tents can work together in groups and put out a tip jar to donate to the charity of their choice.

“This is a volunteer event that has grown and blossomed for 45 years,” Mogan said. “What I’m trying to convey to y’all is passion. This committee has a ton of passion. As chairperson, it is amazing to see what people will do, how much time they will spend and dedicate themselves for something they don’t get paid for.”

Those volunteers, he said, are the heart of the festival.

“Every October it still hits 90 down there at the beach,” he said. “Which is good, but when you’re working, it'll wear on you a little bit. I want to salute all the volunteers for the things they do every year.”

This year will be another busy one with 161 arts and crafts vendors, 48 fine arts vendors, 85 retail vendors, 32 food vendors and 45 musical acts providing 51 hours of entertainment.

“I want to open the box a little bit and tell you all the things we do at the festival,” Mogan said. “We have 20-25 performances in the children’s art village alone. You’ve got gymnastics, dance, martial arts, jumping bounce houses.”

Oh, and the free shrimp tent.

“Another big tent, the seafood sampling tent, is a 30-by-50-foot tent,” Mogan said. “We put out 200 pounds of shrimp every day. You can watch the local chefs cook, see the things they do with different recipes and learn things about all the ways you can cook shrimp using Zatarain’s, a very big sponsor of ours.

“We estimate there are 1,600 to 2,000 people through that tent every single day.”

The food vendors have a little tussle amongst themselves trying to win the honor of top dish at the festival.

“You want to talk about competitive, they want that banner, the ‘Best of the Best,’” Mogan said. “It’s another example of an event going on inside the event at the Shrimp Festival.”

Mogan highly suggests using the BRATS trolleys to get to and from the site.

“You can get on at The Wharf and you can ride all the to the festival, you can go all the way to the Flora-Bama, you can go all the way down West Beach and you can go to Pelican Place,” he said. “For $5 a day you can go all over town. You can park your car and go all over town.”

The shuttles run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and other eastern shuttle stops include Winn Dixie, Publix, Gulf State Park campground and the Flora-Bama in Orange Beach in addition to The Wharf.

In Gulf Shores there will be stops at Erie Meyer Civic Center in downtown and on West Beach at Sea Oats condos, Pier 33 Grocery and Waves Grocery and Package Store.