I knew Mark Wallace very well as our troops were in the same district. I first met him at a junior leadership training course at Camp Lowden where we were in the same patrol. Although he was two years younger than me, it quickly became clear that he had strong leadership abilities and we immediately thought very highly of him. Several months later I was pleased to find out that we would both be on camp staff together.

In 1989 he was the class valedictorian at Rockford West High School. Since the school would be closing after that year the television stations in Rockford broadcast part of his speech. In the portion that was broadcast he said that the motto for how he wanted to run his life was, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” That quickly got my attention because of course I knew where he learned that.

When I first started at Camp Lowden I was not sure what was expected of me. When I was told that I had to perform a skit, I suddenly felt quite ill. When asked to lead a song I wanted to faint. I was initially terrified of getting up in front of people. What eventually got me over this fear was when Mark, who was my area director, began asking me to make announcements at assemblies. This started to make me feel more confident about myself. We could always count on other staff members giving us advice on our performance and how well we presented ourselves.