Table Talk Ministries plans fundraiser

Thursday, July 15, 2010

GREENCASTLE -- Table Talk Ministries founder Bill Hutson lives by the phrase, "To the world you may be just one person, but to one person, you just may be the world."

He learned this phrase from his boss while at his first construction job. He learned from going to work with his mom at a nursing home where he learned to have respect and compassion for the elderly.

His father taught him how to fix things, and as a teenager he got a job as a construction worker.

Here, his boss took Hutson along with him to fix homes from free and taught Hutson his life's philosophy.

Not only is it Hutson's personal philosophy, but it is also the motto for Table Talk Ministries.

Hutson founded the non-profit organization in 2002 as a way to help those who were having trouble helping themselves. The mission of Table Talk is to help complete home repairs that otherwise couldn't be done because of expense.

On Friday at 7 p.m., Table Talk Ministries will be holding their first fundraiser at Greencastle Christian Church at 620 Primrose Court, Greencastle.

The Comedy Sportz Club of Indianapolis will be the entertainment for the fundraiser. Tickets are free, but donations will be accepted, and are required for admission, because seating is limited. They can be obtained by calling 247-9585, (317) 270-0442 or 301-6060.

Table Talk Ministries website is tabletalkministries.org, and the organization also has a Facebook page.

Whatever isn't covered by donations, Hutson pays for out of his own pocket.

Cost dictates how many jobs Bill and his group are able to do. The group averages anywhere from five to 25 jobs a year.

As a vocation, Hutson is a truck driver and works 70 hours a week. He then puts in another 30 or 40 helping with construction projects.

Not only does Hutson drive a truck full time and act as the president of Table Talk Ministries, he also owns Trinity Woodworks and Trinity Renovation and serves on a panel of home repair experts answering home repair questions online.

He credits his ability to balance so many tasks to time management. He books jobs six to eight weeks in advance and is able to know when he's going to have a two- or three-day weekend. The company he works for is very flexible when there's a large Table Talk job that needs to be done.

Barbra Hill helps Hutson collect money for the organization. She met Hutson four years ago when contacting him about getting donations through Home Depot in Crawfordsville. She got involved with helping Table Talk two years ago.

The reason she got involved, she said, was because Hutson was "a man of integrity and a man of God."

Even though she's unable to help with the building projects, she does focus her time and effort into helping find donations of money and supplies for the ministry.

Karen Weist of Cloverdale is one of the many people Hutson and his organization has helped.

Table Talk used her materials and built a wheelchair ramp in less than a day.

Medicaid refused to help pay to build a ramp because it didn't see it as a medical necessity, despite the fact Weist uses a wheelchair and could not get down her steps.

She heard about Table Talk Ministries while looking for an organization to help her out.

"If not for Table Talk Ministries, I would have been stuck inside of my home, unable to go out and get the mail or get out in case there was a fire," she said.

She said if her disability claim comes through, she plans on donating money to Table Talk so the organization can continue to help others in the community.

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