'Cheerers' Sought for Holiday Train Ride for Sick Children on Metra's Northwest Line

Operation North Pole is looking for “cheerers” to line up at Metra stations along the Union Pacific Northwest line this Saturday as a special holiday train rolls through with 71 families who have children suffering from life-threatening or terminal illnesses onboard.

This very special “fanciful” train ride will depart from the Des Plaines Metra station at 11:20 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10. Operation North Pole, a volunteer-based charity, will be wrapping the exterior of a Metra train, including the locomotive and all five passenger cars, with holiday colors and images of Christmas.

ONP is the first organization in the Chicago area to wrap a holiday train and locomotive for the purpose of providing families who have children battling life-threatening illnesses with the fantasy of traveling to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, according to a news release from ONP.

The train cars will remain wrapped for the remainder of the holiday season, according to the news release.

The train ride will include a non-stop journey from the Des Plaines Metra station to the Pingree Road station in Crystal Lake.

The public is invited to join cheerers at any of the below-indicated train stations or rail crossings on Metra’s Union Pacific Northwest Line as the train slowly roll by on Saturday to add to the excitement and fun of those onboard. The times shown are estimates and cheerers are encouraged to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early:

• 12:10 p.m.: Pingree Road Station in Crystal Lake
• 12:15 p.m.: Cary Train Station
• 12:18 p.m.: Fox River Grove Train Station
• 12:24 p.m.: Barrington Train Station
• 12:28 p.m.: Baldwin Road Crossing near Palatine
• 12:31 p.m.: Palatine Train Station
• 12:33 p.m.: Rohlwing Road Crossing near Rolling Meadows
• 12:35 p.m.: Arlington Park Train Station
• 12:38 p.m.: Arlington Heights Downtown Train Station
• 12:43 p.m.: Mount Prospect Train Station
• 12:46 p.m.:Cumberland Train Station in Des Plaines

The train ride includes activities led by Mrs. Claus, Mr. Conductor, entertainers, Santa’s Helpers, therapy dogs, firefighters from the North Pole Fire Department, and police officers from the North Pole Police Department. On the return ride to the “North Pole” Train Station, also known as downtown Des Plaines, firefighters, police officers, and well-wishers of all ages will be out with fire engines and police cars, and will be dressed in holiday attire holding up signs with arrows reading “North Pole this way.”

Once back at the “North Pole” train station, the families will board buses and parade to Santa’s Winter Wonderland at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Greeting his guests as they arrive at the “North Pole,” Santa will lead the families through his Gauntlet of Honor, where dozens of police officers and firefighters from Chicago-area communities bend on one knee, clapping, giving high-fives in recognition of the courage these families exhibit each day as they battle life threatening illnesses, according to a news release from Operation North Pole.

The families will then enter into the 26,000-square-foot north ballroom which has been transformed into a child’s sugar-plum dream. Activities include a dance floor with snow machines, games, snacks, a hockey rink, a beauty salon with fashion show runway, a mustache area, ballet dancers, singers, therapy dogs, therapy miniature horses, a model railroad complete with a wrapped replica of the wrapped train the families rode in, a “candy cane lane” with thousands of pounds of candy, and much more.
Each family will visit with Santa, and each child aged 12 and younger will receive wrapped gifts selected from wish lists they wrote to Santa earlier in the year.
Children participating in this incredible day are referred to ONP by child life specialists from area
children’s hospitals and directors from area Ronald McDonald Houses.

“It is a day free from the worry and stresses of hospital stays and medical treatments; a day to just be a child at Christmas,” according to the ONP news release. “With the emotional and financial stresses that a family with a child battling a life-threatening or a terminal illness may face, ONP makes sure that all of the children in the immediate family participate and share in the joyful festivities.”

In total, 321 family members are participating in this year’s special day.

To learn more about ONP and how the public can support this worthy cause through donations or by volunteering, visit www.operationnorthpole.org.