In a campaign dedicated to the selfless efforts of their late co-worker Dave Jacoby, employees of PCS Phosphate Aurora collected more toys than ever before during the annual Toys for Tots drive in eastern North Carolina.

"I'm speechless," Dave's wife Kaye said on learning of the achievement. After a brief pause, she added: "It would overwhelm Dave to know the guys rallied in his memory to get a record number of toys for the kids. We were never blessed with any children of our own."

Dave was 56 when he died of a heart attack last fall.

PCS Phosphate employees, joined by staff of participating contracted companies, collected 500 toys, 71 bicycles and more than 800 Christmas stockings during the campaign leading up to Christmas 2007. Toys collected during the campaign were distributed to about 28,000 disadvantaged kids throughout the region, an area of more than 8,000 square miles that encompasses 17 counties.

"That's a lot of smiles on a lot of faces," said Master Sgt. David Huffman, who oversaw the regional portion of the national campaign, undertaken each year by the U.S. Marine Corps. "It's a nice tribute to Dave and it shows me an overwhelming concern for community."

Transporting the large volume of toys to the Marine Corps facility at Cherry Point, NC, from PCS Phosphate was no easy task. It took one 26-foot cargo trailer, a seven-ton military truck and two half-ton trucks to accomplish the task. Huffman said he and his small staff enlisted third-party agencies to distribute the toys because the eastern North Carolina campaign covers the largest area of any Toys for Tots drive in the United States.

Rhonda Speiss, Manager of Public Relations at PotashCorp, congratulated staff for their record-setting effort and offered her own tribute to Dave Jacoby.

"Dave Jacoby helped bring sunlight into the lives of many kids in eastern North Carolina," Speiss said. "PotashCorp is fortunate to have employees who go above and beyond the call of duty to improve their communities. Improving the quality of life in our communities is not only a value of PotashCorp's, but is also a value of our employees."

Kaye Jacoby, who worked side-by-side with Dave in his workshop, says she's not sure yet whether she'll try to continue the annual toy crafting effort on her own, or perhaps with help from friends.

"Right now, it breaks my heart to go out into that workshop," she said.

But in time, she allowed, who knows?

"Quite a few of the ladies from the church said they'd be happy to help," she said. "They're saying we could have an elf party. So, I guess we'll see."

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