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2024 June 15-22 Watermelon Festival
Theme
Heart of Hampton County
Honoring Our Community Leaders
Thanks to our sponsors that
make this festival a success.
More later!
Community Involvement
Mr. Jack Hutto currently serves as the president of Hampton County Rotary Club. Rotary Club provides two $1,000 annual scholarships for local high school students and provides a brand-new educational dictionary with learning resources annually to all 3rd grade students in Hampton County (public and private schools), Allendale County, and Andrew Jackson Academy in Bamberg, SC.
Most recently, he wrote two grants ($2,500 and $3,000) to 1) provide Christmas presents and a holiday meal to local students and families and 2) sponsor a revitalization of a nature trail and outdoor classroom at Hampton Elementary School. With help from the community, Hampton County Rotary Club was able to provide Christmas presents to over 200 students in Hampton County in December 2023.
He also serves as the Coordinator of the Betti Crosby Early Childhood Education Grant Fund to provide classroom support for early childhood classrooms which is distributed through Community Foundation of the Lowcountry and PEARLS of Hampton County. He is a past member of Hampton County Arts Council.
Work Experience
For the last twenty-nine years, Jack has worked in the Hampton County school system in various capacities as a music and beginning band teacher (14 years) and most recently as a district administrator (15 years). He now serves as the Director of Communications and Special Projects for the Hampton County School District. When asked about his position, Jack said, “My current position enables me to coordinate opportunities and services for children and families while coordinating with faith-based groups and the community.” Before working in the field of education, he worked previously as a paralegal for two years.
Church Involvement
For as long as he can remember, church life and church music have been an integral part of his life. He has served as organist at All Saints Episcopal Church in Hampton for the last 37 years and as musician and Director of Music at Hampton United Methodist Church for the last 35 years. In addition, he has served as musician for Varnville United Methodist Church for the last 5 years. During the pandemic, he assisted his pastor, Reverend Tyler Strange, and the churches in which he serves to navigate those uncertain times. They transitioned from in-person worship to online Sunday services. He also held a Wednesday night singing, prayer, and online devotion time during the pandemic and for the next year thereafter. After starting back with in-person worship, his church has maintained the online Sunday morning worship service.Most recently, after much prayer, discernment from the Lord God, encouragement from others, and guidance from United Methodist Church Waterboro District Superintendent, Reverend Joey McDonald, Jack answered the call to pulpit ministry and was assigned as the local pastor of Hampton – Varnville United Methodist Churches.
Church Missions and Outreach
When asked about his experience with missions and outreach work, he said, “God has blessed me to have served as the Missions Committee Chairperson at Hampton United Methodist Church for the last 6 years. With the help of local contributors, we started the Backpack Buddies program that addresses food insecurity for students in the Hampton County School District.” Originally started with seed money from a grant he wrote from the Lowcountry Ministries Fund, which received contributions in memory of the late Honorable Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney, Backpack Buddies provides meals for nearly 175 students across 4 schools within the district. Food packages are sent home with students every Friday during the school year. Prior to COVID, he coordinated weekly volunteers to put the packages together for the children. Since the pandemic, the food parcels have come prepackaged.
As well as the Backpack Buddies program, it was determined there was a need in the community for food support for families. During the pandemic, he was able to lead the church through the grant writing process of applying and receiving COVID-19 relief funds from Community Foundation of the Lowcountry to support more than 5,000 Hampton County citizens who struggled with food insecurity. Fresh produce, meat and dairy items were provided (55,000 pounds) to approximately 1,500 families in 15 drive-by distributions at 3 sites across Hampton County from June – October 2020 which equated to approximately 48,806 meals.
Since the pandemic, his churches have continued the food distributions two times per month in partnership with Lowcountry Food Bank and other local and private contributors. This has become a volunteer-led ministry with individuals who initially came to receive food now helping to give food to others by assisting with the food distributions.
For the last year and a half, Jack has led a weekly read-through-the-Bible study group. This includes members of our Hampton and Varnville United Methodist congregations as well as some community members. In speaking about the Bible study, he said, “I believe God has enabled us to deepen our understanding of the word and how it applies to our lives.”
Hampton County Watermelon Festival Parade
Click above for a link to the PRTC live parade video starting Saturday, June 22, 2024