Holiday spirit will be rolling into town full steam ahead with the Canadian Pacific (CP) Holiday Train.
The festive train, complete with 14 rail cars with hundreds of thousands of lights and a boxcar that acts as a travelling stage, will be making stops in both Cochrane and Morley Dec. 13.
In Cochrane, it will be stopping between River Avenue and 4th Street, behind the Provincial Building at 2:45 p.m., coinciding with Cochrane’s first annual Santa Clause Parade that will begin at 5 p.m. in historic downtown.
Its next stop will be in Morley just adjacent to the Morley gas station at 4:10 p.m.
The Canadian train will leave the Montreal area on Nov. 26 and will make a three-week journey ending in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
The program was launched in 1999 and aims to raise money, food and awareness for local food banks across Canada and the United States. According to the CP website, the Holiday Train has raised close to $9.5 million and over three million pounds of food across North America since it began.
“The Holiday Train is all about the community coming together over the holiday season and helping each other out with donations to local charities,” said E. Hunter Harrison, CEO of CP in a media release. “CP continues to be grateful that our train of lights and top musical talent are welcomed with open arms and that this has become a holiday tradition in our communities.”
CP said it works in conjunction with local food bank groups where everything that is raised in the community stays there. Visitors are asked to bring a non-perishable food item or a cash donation to the event.
This year, CP is asking that people be conscious of exactly what types of foods they are donating with its ‘Healthy Donations’ challenge that encourages people attending to ensure their non-perishable donations are nutritious and heart-healthy.
There is an online pledge that CP is encouraging people to sign to support the challenge with a goal of 20,000 signatures.
“We’re excited to once again see CP’s Holiday Train travel across the country in support of community food banks,” said Katharine Schmidt, executive director for Food Banks Canada, in a media release. “When so many Canadians are struggling just to get enough food to eat, programs like this help to ensure so many families and individuals can access essential food.”
Both stops in Cochrane and Morley will feature performances from Jim Cuddy and Tracey Brown.
Juno award winning Cuddy is the frontman for the long running Canadian country rock band Blue Rodeo, and in 2011 he released his third solo album Skyscraper Soul. Brown is a former member of award winning country group The Family Brown and has released more than 20 albums. She and her husband, Randall Prescott, have not only performed on several Holiday Train tours, but have also been involved in the production.
