MOBILE, Alabama -- "We had a really good turnout this year," said Krispy Kreme store manager Mel Silvers as he talked about the annual Beads for Doughnuts drive.

That's a bit of an understatement.

Over three days, Krispy Kreme customers donated enough Mardi Gras beads to fill 78 bins. Each bin holds about 1,800 to 2,000 lbs. of beads, so that's more than 140,000 lbs. of glittery necklaces to go to the jobs program at Augusta Evans Special School.

Each person who brought a 12-lb. bag of beads to Krispy Kreme received a dozen free doughnuts, or a coupon to use later.

On Wednesday night, with about an hour left in the campaign, the drive-through was filled with cars and there was a long line of customers waiting for doughnuts.

"We got everybody out of here on time," Silver said. Many people showed up just to donate beads, he said, walking up and tossing them into the bins.

Krispy Kreme employees make about 400 dozen doughnuts per hour, Silver said, and the store's baking capacity was "maxed out" during the drive. Employees gave out 9,116 dozen doughnuts to beads donors, he said.

The donations, and doughnuts, obliterated the 2013 totals of 53 bins, 81,000 lbs. and 6,750 dozen doughnuts.

At Augusta Evans Special School , students tag and bag the necklaces, sell them to mystic societies, and use the profits to buy school equipment and to maintain the job skills program.

The store brought in extra employees during the drive to help with traffic, and police officers to weigh the beads and hand out coupons.

Now, Krispy Kreme is delivering the bins to the Mobile County school board's Central Office for storage, until Augusta Evans opens its new school this fall.

Silvers estimated that it would take two days to deliver all of the bins.