I’m at another camp fair, but unlike Arlington a month ago, this one has a distinctly different vibe.
Because Paris, France is a bit different than Virginia. As is Geneva, Switzerland where I was a few days later.
Paris and Geneva have lower overall attendance than the Arlington fair, but are more set for longer one-on-one conversations. There’s a different energy, different families (obviously), and different reasons for choosing camp.
We had several enrollments in the days immediately after the fair. Families who fly from Europe to send their kids to West Virginia for two weeks. And when you understand why, it makes complete sense.
Why Families Fly 3,000+ Miles to West Virginia
These families aren’t casual browsers. They come with specific reasons in mind.
English immersion is the big initial one.
They aren’t looking for language practice as much as total cultural immersion. Weeks and weeks of speaking, thinking, and living in English. No switching back to the familiar when things get tough to explain.
Summer camp in West Virginia isn’t language school in Europe.
Which is pretty much the whole point.
Paris kids go from walking the Champs-Élysées to strolling around in our woods. Swiss kids are trading Geneva for creek walks and gaga pits. The contrast alone is incredible valuable.
Like almost all campers who come here, you can’t rely on the familiar surroundings or the comforts of home. And you have to adapt to a new place.
Independence and adventure.
One Paris teen told me directly: “I’ve done eight months in England. Now I’m ready for a new adventure.”
These families are intentional about these summer choices. They know what camp does for kids. They’re not looking for summer babysitting or entertainment. They’re looking for real transformation.
Camp Is Uniquely American
European “camps” are mostly summer programming held on school campuses. Kids living in dorms, attending classes, and working through structured academic enrichment programs.
To call it camp, as we think about it, isn’t really accurate. It’s closer to summer school with some recreational activities mixed in.
Twin Creeks represents something fundamentally different. Cabins instead of dorms. Community instead of curriculum. Traditions that kids return to year after year because they found a place where they actually belong.
At these fairs in Paris and Geneva, there were only two actual camps present. Twin Creeks and one Canadian program. Everything else was pretty much academic enrichment programming on university campuses.
Twin Creeks stands out immediately in that context.
Families literally cross oceans to access something US kids sometimes take for granted. That tells you something important about what we actually have here.
What 10% International Actually Means
Twin Creeks runs at roughly 90% American campers, 10% international.
That ratio matters more than you might think.
For international campers:
It’s enough that they don’t feel completely alone or isolated. But not so many that they cluster together and only speak their home language with each other. They integrate into cabins naturally, make American friends, and live the full camp experience.
For American campers:
It means real exposure to different lives and perspectives. A cabin mate from another country brings something genuine to cabin life. Conversations about different schools, different cities, different ways of living and growing up.
For everyone at camp:
Seasoned campers instinctively love welcoming newcomers into the community.
“Let me show you how this works” becomes their natural response.
These aren’t one-summer families either, by the way. Multi-year enrollments from Paris families exist in the same way they do for Bethesda families.
Camp becomes part of their lives over five, six, seven years. Multiple kids from the same family choosing to come back summer after summer.
Your kid’s cabin mate might be from France this summer. They’ll learn what life looks like 3,000 miles away from their own.
Twin Creeks isn’t trying to position itself as an international program.
We’re an American camp that international families happen to choose intentionally. That choice validates what so many families already know about this place.
Camp works because of what happens here and how it happens, not because of where families come from originally.
Paris or Bethesda, the bridge crossing into camp looks the same. And the experience waiting on the other side matters just as much.
