Johnathan Clarkson, General Manager for Nitehawk Adventure Park. Photo Credit: Nitehawk Adventure Park

By Shane Clausing

Nitehawk Adventure Park

Nitehawk officially names Johnathan Clarkson new General Manager

Jul 23, 2020 | 3:21 PM

Longtime Assistant General Manager of Nitehawk Year-Round Adventure Park Johnathan Clarkson has officially been named as the General Manager of Nitehawk.

Clarkson has been with the Nitehawk organization for 13 years and served as the Assistant General Manager for eight of those 13 years. He’s recently served as the Acting General Manager.

He says while he’s taking over as General Manager in unusual times for the organization with COVID-19 going around, he says he’s excited for the opportunity.

“I’m definitely excited about all the opportunities for growth and that going forward. Obviously, we have to make it through this pandemic and all the changes and adaptations going forward into the winter season.

“We know that Nitehawk’s always been a growth-oriented organization with support of our organizations and management team previously, so we want to continue with that and work towards getting things back to where they used to be, and then continuing on to our long range planning with our board of directors.”

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Clarkson is also the Board Chair of the Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association.

Board President Whitney Wild says the board is excited about the hire.

“Johnathan brings a wealth of experience and dedication to the General Manager position and we’re excited about his new role within the organization. We’re confident Nitehawk Year-Round Adventure Park will continue to meet challenges and realize new levels of excellence under his direction.”

Clarkson tells EverythingGP that one of the first items on his checklist as G.M. is figuring out what to do with the skiing season and students heading back to school’s in the fall. He wants to make sure that students and visitors attending the park can have a safe visit.

“As well all know things can change from day to day or week to week, but we do have to continue to move forward as we would to be ready for the coming (winter) season. We are looking at industry standards that are coming out.

“We are really watching New Zealand closely right now as an industry, they are in their winter season, so a lot of the ski industry best practices will be coming out of that.”

Clarkson explained what some of those practices could look like come winter.

“There hasn’t been a lot (best practices) released (to the public yet), but there could potential for reduced amount of occupants on the hill at one time.

“Another thing that we’re thinking also is, ‘what will school groups look like this year?’ What does that mean for field trips and things like that? Does it mean we have to go to smaller classes sizes versus 150 students coming out (to the park) all at once? We are looking and thinking of those things and coming up with plans on how we can adapt our operation, to make sure we can still offer a quality product.”

While there is uncertainty for what the future holds at Nitehawk with COVID-19, Clarkson says he looks forward to the challenge.

“We have a great core management group that has been at the helm since COVID-19 hit and we were forced to close in March. I’m confident in the team that I have working with me that we can continue moving Nitehawk forward.”