PRESQUE ISLE – A local lumber company hopes to fill a tub with toys for area children this holiday season with a drive to benefit the United Way of Aroostook’s Toys for Tots program.

“Our goal is to have toys piled as high as they can go,” Pat Rathbun, co-owner of Rathbun Lumber Co., said Tuesday.

The company has positioned a display bathtub near the front of its store on State Street and is inviting people to walk, drive, or “fly by reindeer-pulled sleigh” to the store and drop off new, unwrapped toys for local children in need.

The standard-size tub is mounted in a display case on wheels and has been decked out in garland and bows for the event. Rathbun said the company has never done a drive like this before, but wanted to contribute this year to the Toys for Tots program. The local United Way program provides toys to children newborn to age 18, with a major focus on young children, throughout Aroostook County.

“We just wanted to be involved in a Christmas community project,” she said. “This gives people one more place where they can drop off toys for the United Way.”

Company officials got the idea for the drive after learning about a similar campaign in the industry that involves filling hot tubs full of toys. Rathbun said they decided to start off small, but that “if there’s overflow, we won’t mind that either.”

Rathbun said employees have contributed to the cause individually, and that, as a business, the company will donate $1 to the local United Way for every toy it receives.

The drive will culminate on Dec. 15, when the business offers coffee and doughnuts during the day, as well as a small gift to everyone who stops by with a toy.

Toys may be dropped off from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday or from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 764-4444 or visit www.rathbunlumber.com.