Holiday Train delivers mountain of food
Jolly Ol' St. Nick did a little dancing on stage while Doc Walker and Miss Emily played
Santa Claus’s elves disembarked from the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train on Tuesday evening in Port Haney and handed out candy canes to the children.
Photograph by: Sylver McLaren , TIMES
Santa Claus rolled into town Tuesday night on the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, to the delight of thousands of partygoers.
The train arrived at the Port Haney train station, and Santa and three elves emerged and mingled with the zealous crowd while country performers Doc Walker and Miss Emily entertained from the boxcar stage.
The 14th annual holiday train has been raising food, money, and awareness for food banks in communities across Canada and the U.S.
According to Friends In Need Food Bank's Mary Robson, 2,566 pounds of food and $3,032 were collected for the food bank.
Maple Ridge has been one of the stops along the route for 14 years, and all food and funds raised during the visit stays in the community.
"It was a great event. We thought it was going to be a wet cold night and it turned out to be a perfect, crisp winter night," said Robson.
"The Billy Miner was instrumental in helping us. They supplied all the hot chocolate and hotdogs and collected donations from patrons inside the pub," Robson added.
Firefighters for Families made their annual cheque presentations to Friends In Need Food Bank and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Christmas Hamper.
The cheque from Maple Ridge firefighters topped $13,000 and Pitt Meadows firefighters raked in more than $5,000.
CP Train also donated a cheque for $3,000 to the food bank.
The holiday train rolled through Maple Ridge during its second to last stop this season.
To date, they have helped raise $5.6 million and 2.45-million pounds of food with their holiday train program.
Santa Claus’s elves disembarked from the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train on Tuesday evening in Port Haney and handed out candy canes to the children.
Photograph by: Sylver McLaren , TIMES
