Train to trade music for food
Anna Krejci/Events
Bev Meier, manager at Broadway Travel Mart, stands next to a pile of food items that will be donated to the Central Wisconsin Community Action Council food pantry as part of the Holiday Train collection. Meier said Spring Hill Middle School students donated a lot of the items. The Lake Delton Travel Mart is also a collection site.
By Anna Krejci, Dells Events
The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train arrives Dec. 6 carrying musical performers delivering a free concert in exchange for donations made to the local food pantry.
The events in December surrounding the CP Holiday Train last year — food and drink sales and a raffle — helped the local food pantry raise almost $17,000 which funded the purchase of more than 94,400 pounds of food.
The food pantry reports supplying food to 192 households every month in 2009. Each family receives 50 pounds of food each visit, so the pantry gives more than 9,600 pounds of food each month; for the entire year that amounts to 115,200 pounds.
The Holiday Train Committee, comprised of Lisa Williams, food pantry supervisor, Sally McDowell and Keith Koehler from Country Keg, Debbie Carroll as a former Ad-Lit employee and Dixie Marquardt of Holiday Wholesale, has been organizing a slew of activities that will take place before and after the train’s stop at the Amtrak Depot in downtown Wisconsin Dells.
The train is scheduled to arrive at 2:45 p.m. Activities that will be ongoing from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. include a visit from Santa Claus, food and drink sales, sleigh rides and the selling of raffle tickets also to raise money for the food pantry.
The top prize for the raffle this year are two tickets to the Green Bay Packers v. Seattle Seahawks football game Dec. 27 at noon. Winners of the raffle will be determined at a drawing Dec. 12 at 3 p.m. at Country Keg. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the train depot or food pantry. They will be sold up until the drawing. For information, visit dellsholidaytrain.com or call 254-8353.
Members of the Holiday Train Committee encourage the community to donate before the train arrives or at the depot Dec. 6. A food drive in December is ongoing. Items can be dropped at the Broadway Travel Mart Mobil in Wisconsin Dells or the Lake Delton Travel Mart Mobil.
It is the fourth year that the CP Holiday Train has come to Wisconsin Dells, but the Holiday Train has been operating since 1999. Last year, Canadian Pacific announced that the train helped raise $500,000 and 250,000 pounds of food.
This year the train is visiting more than 40 American cities, towns and villages. It starts in Scranton, Penn. on Nov. 28 and ends in Carpio, ND on Dec. 17.
Riding on the train and performing during a half-hour of musical entertainment during the train’s stop in the Dells is blues and rock artist Shaun Verreault.
“Across North America, wherever there are people who are in need of food, there are communities dedicated to feeding that need,” Verreault said in a news release. “The Holiday Train helps communities help each other, not just during the holiday season, but year round. And I’m honored to help supply the soundtrack to such an inspiring program.”
Verreault is the lead singer and guitarist for a blues rock threesome called Wide Mouth Mason. He also writes songs. He has performed with big name bands like ACDC and The Rolling Stones. Wide Mouth Mason performed in a movie starring Pacino and has toured in China. As a soloist he’s traveled to Afghanistan, Greece and the Middle East.
Joining Verreault on the train is Canadian singer and lyricist Adam Puddington and Kaylen and Kelly Prescott. Puddington is from Almonte, Ontario, a tiny town in the Ottawa Valley along the Mississippi River.
And Prescott, the name of the band comprised of the brother-sister act, have their debut CD, “The Lakeside Sessions.” The CD demonstrates their musical style of “rock and roots, heartbreak and love.”
Kaylen and Kelly come from a family of musical artists.
The Holiday Train is about 1,050 feet long with about 14 decorated rail cars, including one that is converted into an open air stage for the performers. In addition to running a train along the route to 40 communities in the United States, Canadian Pacific also operates a Holiday Train in Canada. Together the trains traverse about 6,900 miles in seven U.S. states and six Canadian provinces. The two, lighted trains will visit 137 communities in Canada and the United States this holiday season.