SunTrust Bank’s branch on Main Street, Gloucester Court House, has launched a project for the second straight year to assist needy elderly in the county during the Christmas season.

Bank vice president Jacque Jones said that her staff has set up a “Silver Bell Tree” in the bank lobby where customers and others can stop in, select a paper tree tag with specific wish lists of some Gloucester senior citizens in need, and then return to the bank by Friday, Dec. 18, with their gifts.

SunTrust employees will distribute the gifts before Christmas, with the help of several local nonprofit agencies who provided names and needs of lower-income local seniors. The goal is to help 40 seniors, double those assisted in SunTrust’s first “Silver Bell Tree” project last December. The tags carry the real first name of a local senior citizen, with specific requests for clothing, food and toiletries. A few of the seniors have requested food for their pets, she added.

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