Teens' Camping Tour of the West Inc was born from the dream of C. Peter Cole to take teenagers to see the wonders of the West and use the adventure of travel to guide young people down the path of self-discovery. TCTW took its first trips West in 1967 in VW Busses. From the success of that summer, and years of labors of love by Peter Cole, Doug Gill, and current director Sassy Smyth, TCTW has expanded to the age of mini-busses, customized trailers and an informative websites. TCTW has accepted participants from all over the world, but finds its main draw from Virginia and the Carolinas.
In 2013 TCTW inducted its third director, Sassy Smyth. Through the years TCTW has molded its program to embody six significant principles: love yourself, love others, appreciate nature, realize that you have been given unique gifts, recognize that it is your responsibility to use those gifts to make your corner of the world a better place, all while giving praises to our maker. It is these six principles that we hope all participants will come to embrace and practice throughout their lives.
Our goal is leadership and spiritual development for teenagers with the notion that raising up spiritually strong leaders is part of building a better world. TCTW with over 4,000 past participants has proudly been engaged in this mission for 47 years.
Covid Guidelines and Policies will likely continue to change as we approach this summer's trips, and oftentimes they will differ from state to state as well. TCTW will follow ALL recommended guidelines. This could include mask wearing and social distancing when in public, following group size limitations for gatherings and picnicking, park/trail/beach closures, etc. At this point in time, it is impossible for me to tell you exactly what these policies will be in June and July. While I hope things will be mostly "normal", it is our plan and commitment to follow the guidance of public health officials throughout the summer to protect ourselves and the communities through which we travel.
Our adherence to these guidelines and policies affects the relationships TCTW has with campgrounds, parks and the National Park Service in the future. It is my hope to continue to return to and be welcome in all the places we travel, and part of ensuring those relationships is doing what is asked of us this year.
I us all the be in agreement and on the same page that we will follow the guidelines and help ensure a great summer not only for us, but the communities we travel through this summer as well.
If selected to travel with us this summer, you will receive detailed guidance on what this will look like closer to the trip and hopefully the update this year will be very minimal!
Vaccines: One of the biggest hurdles TCTW faces in regards to Covid and running a successful trip is what happens if someone on the trip has a close exposure, exhibits symptoms and/or tests positive for Covid. The nature of our trip and how we travel simply cannot accommodate quarantining (Quarantining would involve a parent flying to meet their child so that they can be quarantined while the trip travels on). We don't have the ability to isolate one participant or even a whole van and continue to travel. An exposure could be trip ending for all of us. One solution to that is being vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, the rules for exposure and quarantining are different. According to the CDC, if you are fully vaccinated, you do not have to quarantine unless you develop symptoms. As you can see, this is a huge benefit for a program like ours. From a logistical standpoint, reducing the need to quarantine is invaluable to our program and it gives us the best chance of running a full 23 day trip. As such, we will require a Covid-19 vaccination for travel in 2022.
I understand the choice to vaccinate is a personal one, but with the way our tour is structured, this is the best option to help us have a successful trip. Each participant will have to provide proof of full vaccination in order to travel with us this summer.
All of the staff this summer will be vaccinated, as well, in order to give us the best chance at running an uninterrupted 23 day trip.