By Paul Salfen, Christine Thompson for AMFM Magazine
In the flickering light of a campfire, a middle-school boy who had just buried his Army Ranger father and then lost his mother to alcoholism stood up and unleashed a torrent of anger. One by one, he insulted every mentor seated around the circle. It was raw. It was ugly. And it was exactly where healing began.
That night, the boy—now surrounded by men who understood sacrifice and loss—began to let the walls down. By the end of the week, he was hugging those same mentors and calling them brothers. His story is just one of dozens that Mark and Jane Neumann carry with them as they lead LifeCamp USA, a faith-infused mentorship program for middle-school (and now high-school) children who have lost a father to U.S. military, law enforcement, or first-responder service.
“These kids come searching in a bigger way,” Mark Neumann told AMFM Magazine during a recent interview that opened, as many of their conversations do, with prayer. “What’s life about? The pain they feel. We step into that space and remind them that although they’ve lost their earthly fathers, they still have a heavenly Father who has a plan for their lives.”
The Neumanns know something about stepping into hard spaces. Mark brings more than 35 years of leadership as a financial planner with Northwestern Mutual and a lifelong passion for guiding young men in biblical character. Jane, trained as an educator at Concordia University Wisconsin, has spent her career empowering young people to grow spiritually and understand God’s love for them. Married for more than 35 years and parents to five daughters of their own, the couple runs LifeCamp USA from their home in southern Wisconsin, their desks side by side. It is a deliberate, sometimes challenging, but deeply rewarding partnership.
The idea for LifeCamp USA crystallized in 2020. They chose the middle-school years for a reason.
“Middle school is just such a special age,” Mark explained. “We can all reflect back and go, ‘Wow, that was a tough time.’ Today it’s probably five or ten times tougher with social media and everything else that’s out there.” For children already carrying the weight of sudden, violent loss, the need for direction, resilience, and hope is urgent.
Each summer, LifeCamp USA flies selected campers—all expenses paid—to beautiful guest ranches for a week of wilderness adventure, honest conversation, and purposeful mentorship. The program is completely donor-funded; no family pays a cent. This year they will run ten camps serving 100 young people.
The model is simple but powerful: small groups of ten campers matched with committed mentors—roughly 100 strong, many of them military and law enforcement veterans who bring credibility and lived experience. In that safe, understanding environment, kids who rarely speak about their grief at school find peers who “get it.”
“Ten children that don’t know each other come to camp and go home like best friends,” Mark said. “Because everyone there has that same kind of grief and hurt on the inside. If they want to talk about it, great. If they’re not ready yet, they still feel safe.”
The curriculum is equally intentional. Campers explore integrity, resilience, resisting addictions, and the difficult realities of pornography—topics many middle-school boys encounter but few adults are willing to address directly. Girls who have lost their dads receive guidance on making healthy life decisions. Above all, the Neumanns and their mentors point campers toward the hope of a heavenly Father whose plans are good.
The results are already rippling outward. One mother recently emailed the Neumanns after a heated argument with her son. Later she found him outside reading his Bible—something he had never done before camp.
“My son would never have done that,” she wrote. The lessons learned “with a flashlight in the dark” had traveled home and begun healing a mother-son relationship.
Mark and Jane never set out to build a large organization. Mark’s own “Hail Mary moment,” as he described it to AMFM co-host Drew Pearson, came when he decided to step back from decades of high-pressure financial meetings to sit quietly with grieving kids and listen.
“It’s a big stretch for me after 40 years of running, meeting, meeting, meeting,” he admitted with a laugh. “But it’s a blessing.” Jane, he noted, has been “doing Hail Marys all the time” to keep the household and mission running smoothly while they work side by side.
Their guiding Scripture is James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” Mark has leaned on that verse since his own middle-school years. It has become the umbrella over every challenge LifeCamp USA has faced—from launching during a pandemic to scaling rapidly while remaining fully donor-supported.
The Neumanns are quick to say the work is bigger than any single couple or camp. They hope their story inspires others to invest in the young people around them.
“You don’t need to go off to camp in a different state to mentor kids,” Mark emphasized. “They’re all around you—whether it’s in your church, your family, your community. Kids that don’t have good father figures… everybody can get involved.”
For those who want to join LifeCamp USA directly, the doors are wide open. The organization is always looking for mentors willing to give a week of their summer, donors who believe in the mission, and referrals of eligible families. The website—LifeCampUSA.org—features an application for mentors and stories that show exactly what a week in the wilderness can do.
As the conversation drew to a close, Mark and Jane reflected on the privilege of serving these families.
“We feel so blessed,” Mark said. “To be involved in their lives… it’s a privilege, honestly.”
In a world that can feel increasingly chaotic for young people, LifeCamp USA offers something rare: a circle of mentors, a safe place to grieve, and the quiet assurance that their lives are not over. A heavenly Father still has plans for them—plans for hope and a future. And every summer, around campfires from Wisconsin to the mountains beyond, that promise is taking root in the hearts of children who once felt utterly alone.
To learn more, nominate a family, apply as a mentor, or support the work of LifeCamp USA, visit LifeCampUSA.org.
