Old National Bank’s Giving Tree
Old National Bank has a Giving Tree where community members can purchase gifts for specific local children in need and also houses a Toys for Tots drop off bin. Photo courtesy of Dawn Chizek.
Manchester has many opportunities at Christmas for residents to help others less fortunate than themselves in the community. If you feel like you can’t afford to adopt a family, or Toys for Tots is too broad of a field in which to purchase gifts, consider participating in Old National Bank’s giving tree!
Photo courtesy of Dawn Chizek.
The bank started the Giving Tree in 2006 when they were still United Bank & Trust. Tammy Melcher has been in charge of it on the bank’s end for the last six years. The bank sets up a display of tags. Each tag represents a specific child who Manchester Family Services is helping this year and list’s their age and gender (but not name). People in the community are invited to come into the bank, select a tag, purchase an age-appropriate item or two for the child and bring it into the bank unwrapped with the tag that identifies for which child it was purchased. Everything is done anonymously, so that only the Manchester Family Services team knows knows which tag goes with which child.
Participants are asked to bring the gift to the bank by Monday December 17th so that they can get it to Manchester Family Services in time. They ask that the gifts are unwrapped so that the parents can see the gifts as well as wrap them for their children.
There are still children whose tags haven’t been chosen. Melcher stated, “We started with seventeen girls and fifteen boys (total of thirty-two children) and we have fourteen tags that have not been chosen yet–ranging in age from 7 months to 12 years old. We would love to have all the tags gone this week so that we can get them back to the bank by December 17th.”
Photo courtesy of Dawn Chizek.
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