Greenwood, Va.'s Judy Steele Wins SunTrust Charity Challenge

ATLANTA Sept. 5, 2008 – Former IndyCar driving champion Tony Kanaan may have been the first to take the checkered flag at the June 29 SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway (RIR), but Judy Steele of Greenwood, Va., and the American Cancer Society are the big winners in the first SunTrust Charity Challenge Sweepstakes.

Steele, 57, was the winner of the SunTrust Charity Challenge drawing from a pool of entrants who registered at 191 participating SunTrust Bank branches throughout the state of Virginia prior to the June 29 IndyCar event at RIR. In the sprit of SunTrust’s overwhelmingly successful My Cause charitable campaign, the company provided a $10,000 donation to the contest winner’s favorite 501-c3 charity and another $5,000 in prize money to the contest winner.

Had the winner of the drawing correctly selected the winner of the SunTrust Indy Challenge, both the prize money and charitable donation would have been doubled. Steele picked Buddy Rice to win the race.

“I feel very privileged to have won the SunTrust Indy Charity Challenge Sweepstakes,” said Steele, who works as a sales manager at a local Goodwill Industries store and has several family members who have been stricken with cancer. “It is an honor to be chosen as the winner and to be able to give to the charity of my choice, through SunTrust Bank, $10,000 to the American Cancer Society/Cancer Research center. Thank you.”

“We are pleased that the SunTrust Charity Challenge winner is from our Western Virginia region,” said Barry L. Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, SunTrust Bank Western Virginia Region. “SunTrust has a long history and tradition of supporting and contributing to the communities in which we operate, so I am pleased that Judy Steele and the American Cancer Society are the recipients.”