The annual CP Holiday Train is -- hopefully -- on schedule to arrive tonight around 9 at the VIA train station on Elgin Street.
About 15 minutes after it pulls into the station, visitors will be treated to a concert by Roxanne Potvin and Odds.
Over the three weeks of the program, the rotating musicians travelling with the train will play more than 150 concerts from a boxcar that has been turned into a travelling stage. The concerts are free, but donations for the Sudbury Food Bank are encouraged — either a non-perishable food item or a cash donation. All contributions will stay in Sudbury.
The CP Holiday Train is North America's longest rolling food bank fundraiser. Since it started rolling in 1999, the program has raised close to $9.5 million and 3.3 million pounds of food.
Potvin is a Juno award nominated Montreal-based singer/songwriter who has a blues, soul and R&B background, which has seen her work with luminaries such as Colin Linden, John Hiatt and Bruce Cockburn and tour with Sue Foley and Deborah Coleman.
Canadian power pop rock band Odds achieved wide commercial success in the 1990s. Most recently, Odds got together and performed old and new songs on the Barenaked Ladies' Ships & Dip cruise. A new CD, “Cheerleader,” was released in 2008. The first single, "My Happy Place," was used during the end credits for the Canadian TV show "Corner Gas."
"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, the railway’s CEO, in a news 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."
Beginning its journey in Montreal on Nov. 26, CP’s U.S. and Canadian trains will make the three-week journey reaching more than 150 communities.
The U.S. Holiday Train will travel across the U.S. northeast and Midwest before its final show Dec. 17 in Weyburn, Sask., while the Canadian train will travel west and wrap up its journey Dec. 18 in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
The full CP Holiday Train schedule is available on cpr.ca. And supporters can also join the Holiday Train on Facebook and follow the two trains on Twitter, and Instagram @CPHolidaytrain #CPHolidayTrain. Track the challenge at #HealthyDonationsChallenge. For additional information, photos, a route map, and downloadable pictures of the two trains, visit: www.cpr.ca.
