The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train chugged through the area Wednesday night with stops in both Waseca and Janesville.
Thousands gathered at Janesville’s Veterans Memorial Park as the lit-up locomotive illuminated downtown.
In addition to bringing entertainment, the tour promotes efforts to reach people struggling with food insecurity and donates to emergency food pantries along its trans-national route. The holiday train presented a check for $4,500 to the Janesville Community Food Shelf on Wednesday.
In addition, the public brought about 700 pounds of food donations, volunteers estimate.
Crowds also heard from the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton band and got hot chocolate courtesy of the Boy Scouts, among other activities.
Casey Ek