Published: November 24, 2008 07:44 am      

Holiday Train to mark its 10th year

ONEONTA _ Canadian Pacific's Holiday Train will be chugging along local tracks Saturday, stopping in Oneonta and Cobleskill to present singers and promote the season of giving.

The Holiday Train is celebrating its 10th year of providing entertainment to area residents and collecting donations for food banks in communities along its route.

For Oneonta, the scheduled stop in Neahwa Park will be at 4:15 p.m., and in Cobleskill, the train will arrive at the fire station, 610 Main St., at 7:15 p.m.

The Holiday Train is North America's largest rolling fundraiser and is an example of how communities come together, even in challenging economic times, to celebrate the holidays and support local food banks, a news release from Canadian Pacific said.

See TRAIN on Page 9

Since 1999, the Holiday Train program has helped raise more than $3 million and 1.8 million pounds of food.

This year's musical lineup will include Shaun Verreault, a singer/guitarist/songwriter for blues-rockers Wide Mouth Mason, and Melanie Doane, a Canadian singer who has toured with Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan, Great Big Sea and the Philosopher Kings.

"I'm excited to headline the Holiday Train and bring awareness to food bank programs across the United States," Doane said in a prepared statement. "I encourage everyone to bring donations to our Holiday Train stops and help feed the celebration in your community."

Dozens of American cities, towns and villages will be stops for the Holiday Train, which will start its trip in Scranton, Pa., on Friday and end in Carpio, N.D., on Dec. 17. For the first time, the Holiday Train will visit communities in Iowa and additional communities in Minnesota and Illinois in CP's newly acquired railway territories.

In Oneonta, the train will be at the James Georgeson Avenue crossing in Neahwa Park, and proceeds will benefit Opportunities For Otsego's Holiday Basket Program.

The Holiday Train requires more than 1,000 employee volunteers to work on train assembly, light design, event production and security, safety and operations, CP officials said.

This year, the two trains will visit more than 125 communities in Canada and the United States, the CP release said. Each train is about 1,000 feet long with 14 decorated rail cars, including a modified box car that has been turned into a traveling stage, and they were assembled and decorated by CP employees in Montreal, Smiths Falls, Chicago and Calgary. The trains will travel a combined distance of about 6,500 miles.

For more information about the Holiday Train and the OFO Holiday Basket Program, call Opportunities For Otsego at 433-8000; to check the schedule, visit www.cpr.ca.

Another train is scheduled to stop at the same Oneonta site at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, in the Toys for Tots program in conjunction with the U.S. Marines, according to a release from Oneonta City Hall. Toys for Tots boxes will be set up at the site for donations during the visit.