A concert and dinner will be held Saturday, July 17, at the Cotton Hall in Portal, to benefit the family of a local man who recently lost a leg to amputation. Local bands Outrider and Southpaw will perform beginning at 8 p.m.
    Bartow C. Dutton suffers from pulmonary artery disease, and the amputation isn’t the end of his medical needs. When he heals form the amputation, Dutton faces extensive surgery to repair multiple stomach blockages.
    His wife, Edna, recently lost her unemployment. Expenses are mounting as she and her teenage son have made countless trips to Augusta to visit Dutton, and the bills are piling up.
    As if that weren’t enough, they returned home one day to find all their food lost due to a failing freezer.
    Friends and neighbors have helped, but the Dutton family faces the possibility of losing their home. The benefit Saturday will hopefully help with the family’s bills and expenses, said organizer Sherri Poole Joyner.
    Kay Carter Anderson has offered the use of the “Cotton Hall) facility on First Street in Portal. The porch of the renovated cotton warehouse will serve as a stage, and patrons will go inside to get a barbecue meal, then return outside. The meal will include barbecue, or a hotdog or hamburger, sides and a drink. Additional drinks and refreshments will also be sold.
    There will be an inflatable “jumpy” attraction for children, and funnel cakes will be sold as well, she said.
    Outrider, Southpaw, David Reed and Friends and Don “Partyman” Taylor, a local DJ, will perform throughout the night until the event ends at midnight. A cake walk is planned, as well as raffle tickets for home baked cakes and other goodies.
    An entrance fee of $10 ($5 for kids) includes a meal, drink and entertainment. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and continues until midnight. Portal Police and Bulloch County Sheriff’s deputies will have a presence in the area, she said.
    For more information, contact Sherri Poole Joyner at (912) 225-7222; or Holli Deal Bragg at 912-481-8015 or 489-9414.  Both may be reached on Facebook.com as well.
    Interested parties may also access Facebook Page “Benefit for the family of Bartow C. and Edna Williams Dutton.