On Saturday, Beaufort County Community College hosted its first annual Gullfest. The weather was amazing and there was a good turnout from the community. Gullfest’s primary focus was to raise funds for the school’s digital signage campaign. However, there were a couple fundraisers going on within the festival that would benefit members of the community. One was a mock jail in which people could have a person of their choosing “thrown in jail”. The jailed individual would then have to pay $50 to be released and could face being thrown in jail a second time, having to, again, pay $50 to be rereleased. Whether this money was paid out of pocket or attained through sponsorship, it went to a good cause — the GED program at Beaufort. The GED fee at the college went up from $35 to $120 this year. According to Theresa Edwards, chairman for Gullfest, the majority of students at the college are unemployed and it is difficult for them to come up with the money to pay for the GED. The mock jail at Gullfest raised over $1000 for those who are ready to participate but lack the necessary funds. Another fundraiser that went on during Gullfest involved people donating money in the name of another individual. Whichever individual raised the most money from people donating in their name was taped to a wall. The lucky winner was Rick Anderson, vice president of Student Services at BCCC. None of this would have been possible if not for the folks at BCCC. However, hats off to the community for coming out to enjoy the day, support the local college and getting involved in the worthy fundraisers that were being conducted.