An Eagle Scout project always takes a great deal of work. But it nearly always reaps benefits for a local community, and sometimes it has special meaning for the family or the young person who created it.

Joshua Goode, a rising junior at New Creation Christian Academy in McDonough, achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in March of this year after developing a memorial garden at Sacred Journey Hospice just off Jodeco Road. There are two significant facts about this.

First, Joshua became the second sibling in his family to make Eagle Scout, a feat his older brother Mark achieved in 2019. Second, Sacred Journey is where their mother, Shelley Goode, spent the final week of her life.

Shelley was diagnosed with terminal cancer after a routine colonoscopy, according to her husband, Mark Goode Sr. After a nine-month battle with the disease, she died September 10, 2019 at Sacred Journey.

“When looking for an Eagle Scout project idea, Joshua came up with this memorial garden,” said his father, who added that the project took more than nine months and 203 man-hours to complete. “We are so blessed that others can get away into nature and recharge/reflect seeing God’s creation, even at a time when the world seems to be spinning out of control.”

Mark Goode Jr. earned his Eagle Scout designation in April of 2019. His mother had already been diagnosed with cancer but was able to be a part of the ceremony associated with it, as did the rest of the family which includes the boys’ sister. His project consisted of eight outdoor benches for the family’s home church, Community Bible Church in Stockbridge.
“They are still being used today,” said Mark’s father, who also noted that they came in handy when services were held outside during the pandemic.

About three percent of Scouts make Eagle Scout rank, Mark Goode Sr. said, so it makes sense that having two brothers in the same family reach that milestone would be extremely rare (there are no statistics available regarding this rarity).

Mark Goode Jr. just graduated from NCCA and is attending Middle Georgia College in the fall. Both brothers were on the school’s state championship basketball team that was profiled in the Times in 2021, and their father was an assistant coach.

The oldest of the Goode children is Kayla, who is a senior at Georgia College.