For those of you already thinking and planning for Halloween, there will be one little Snoqualmie Valley glitch this fall: Night on a Dark Trail will not be happening.
A series of unforeseen events resulted in the NOADT 2019 hiatus. First, Mark Hennig – who started the Snoqualmie Valley haunted trail tradition eight years ago- retired as President and Director.
Mark released a statement saying, in part: “This endeavor has taken a big commitment of time, energy, passion and craziness. Time for a change; at this time of my life, I want to spend more time traveling with my wife, JoAnna, gardening, enjoying our grandchildren and maybe only doing old time melodramas in the summer. I need to pass on the reins of the production to younger, inspired and impassioned people who want to do a haunted trail….This has become an annual event for the Valley and should continue. I wish to thank everyone from cast, crew and audience for keeping this show alive and making it apart of the Snoqualmie Valley. For this show and for everyone’s life – break a leg and good show.“
Hennig is handing of the helm to Kathleen Lordan-Morris, former Vice President of NOADT. She will take over as Interim Board President lead overall production.
A couple other hiccups also occurred – including a fiery one. In addition to the loss of some board members who moved out of the state, NOADT experience a storage shed fire and lost most of their props.
The fire destroyed stored goods including props, tools and NOADT signage, which has significantly impacted impacted the production’s the ability to move forward in 2019.
Morris said, “We are deeply saddened to make the difficult decision to suspend for 2019 as we know the community looks forward to our Halloween event each year. However, with the loss of Board members, having to replace items from a storage fire, our President retiring and our set Director moving out of state, we do not feel we can bring a quality production to the Valley this year. We greatly appreciate all of the support from our committed volunteers and sponsors year after year as it is not possible without them. We look forward to returning in 2020 bigger, better and scarier than ever before.“
In 2020 Night on a Dark Trail will restructure, adding new technology, special effects, along with darker and scarier themes. The board will continue its focus on charitable community contributions to help it grow and become even spookier.
NOADT is seeking new, replacement board members and creative volunteers. Those interested should reach out to them via the “Contact” link at www.nightonadarktrail.org.
