Windchills into the negative 20s did not stop a crowd from gathering in and around Depot Park for the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Holiday train’s annual stop in Hastings. Bundled beneath stocking caps, scarves and snowmobiling suits, residents gathered to watch band American Authors and Pynk Beard perform from the decorated train.
This year, the CPKC train presented a $4,500 check to Hastings Family Service. The train’s route across the country is paired with local food shelves and makes a donation with each stop, with Hastings Family Service selected at the Hasting stop for the last 23 years. Residents attending the event were also asked for cash or food donations to the nonprofit as well.
The funds donated to Hastings Family Service can be stretched far beyond the buying power of individuals in order to feed more families. The donation also comes during the holiday season which traditionally has been the time of highest need in the community and continues to be the case in what has been a record-breaking year of need for the nonprofit.
“Thank you to the many who showed up not only for entertainment, but more importantly to support our local Hastings Family Service. Hastings you rock!” said Mayor Mary Fasbender.
Fasbender and Amy Sutton, CEO of Hastings Family Service, boarded the train to receive the check on stage.
This year the train arrived ahead of schedule, perhaps yet another gift to the frigid crowds gathering along Second Street, which had thinned as the performance came to a close.
Hastings was the last stop of the night for the train, which would go on to tour stops in and around the Twin Cities for the next two days before continuing west through North Dakota, then crossing the border into Canada on Dec. 19 and ending in Gleichen, Alberta on Dec. 21.
“Since its inaugural journey in 1999, the CPKC Holiday Train has raised more than $26 million and collected approximately 5.4 million pounds of food for community food banks in Canada and the U.S.,” according to the CPKC website.