The CP Holiday Train rolled into Cochrane Tuesday afternoon towing the spirit of giving into town.

The Cochrane Activettes hosted a pre-concert event in historic downtown Cochrane which saw several local businesses and organizations step up to donate to the Cochrane Food Bank.

Richelle Moore with Garmin took the stage with Santa to make the first announcement of the event. "We’re so appreciative of what the Cochrane Activettes do in the Cochrane community, and we wanted to be a part of that, so this year we are making a monetary donation of $6,000."

The donations continued to roll in including $2,000 from Grand Valley Safari Club, $2,000 from Cochrane McDonald's, and $500 from Cochrane Toyota. Two Pharmacy also announced the Activettes as their recipient for the Community Roots program in December, amounting to an additional $4,500.

The CP Holiday Train announced on stage that $4,000 more will be added to the grand total equalling $19,000.

Many Cochranites also came to the event with bags full of food and donations that went on to fill a full-size trailer. Cochrane Activettes president Marcia Gilbertson took the stage to give a big thank you to everyone in the community. 

"We really want to thank everybody who has come up today to give us these huge, generous donations. We also want to thank the whole community, we've been asking and asking for gifts and money, and you have given in lots and lots of ways."

"For the people who need our help, that's why we are here. We have the food bank all year round, not just at Christmas."