Eagle Scout project unites families at Children’s of Mississippi

Published on Tuesday, May 28, 2024

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Photos By: Joe Ellis/ UMMC Communications

Children’s of Mississippi patient Felton Walker delivered two handmade benches to the playground beside the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi as his Eagle Scout project. The sturdy wooden benches will be a place where patients’ families can connect, the way Felton’s family bonded with the Scarbrough family.

Jackson residents John Scarbrough, former Board chair of Friends of Children’s Hospital, and his wife, Jeanne, first met Felton’s mother, Liz Walker, when she was a social worker in pediatric oncology and her 1-year-old son Hudson was being treated for a rhabdoid tumor.

“We first bonded over Hudson’s illness,” Walker said.

Hudson passed peacefully shortly after his diagnosis; the grief further cementing the Walkers and the Scarbroughs' relationship.

Many years later, the Walkers’ son Felton, at age 4, was diagnosed with mitochondrial myopathy, a neuromuscular condition resulting in damaged mitochondria, the intracellular structures that produce energy.

“The doctors told us that Felton needed to be active to build new mitochondria,” Walker said. Walker called John, knowing he had coached youth soccer for many years.

“Are you telling me to be a soccer mom?” Walker asked.

“Yes,” Scarbrough said. “Soccer would be great for him.”

Walker worried about her son because he was going to be running with braces on his legs. But John, a former occupational therapist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, coached Felton in soccer for years afterwards, braces and all.

“We felt so much better with John coaching Felton,” she said.

Felton grew up with care from neurologists, cardiologists, gastroenterologists, otolaryngologists, ophthalmologists and physical therapists at the state’s only children’s hospital, becoming a Boy Scout in 2017 and his Eagle Scout journey began.

When it came time to choose an Eagle Scout project, the Jackson Prep junior and his parents talked with leaders at Children’s of Mississippi about needs. They told him of plans to add a memorial near the playground for a deceased patient whose father had recently completed 14 years of service at Friends of Children’s Hospital. 

The patient being remembered was Hudson Scarbrough. The father is John, who just stepped down as board chairman for Friends.

“I got chills hearing that,” Walker said.

Felton, a junior at Jackson Preparatory School, went to work building memorial benches for the playground with mentoring from neighbor and family friend Tony Antoon.

The benches can be found at the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower in the neighboring Gayle & Tom Benson Charitable Foundation Playground. Walker and her four siblings helped fund the Sanderson Tower with a donation of $1 million to help pay for the construction of the seven-story Children’s Hospital expansion. The funds were donated through their family foundation, the Dr. and Mrs. R. Faser Triplett Foundation.

Triplett, the state’s first board-certified allergist, was a founding partner of the Mississippi Asthma and Allergy Clinic and served terms as president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, the UMMC Alumni Association and the Ole Miss Alumni Association.

The family has a tradition of giving to UMMC. In 2012, they helped establish the R. Faser Triplett Sr. Chair of Allergy and Immunology in honor of their father.

Felton’s father, Chip Walker, recently joined UMMC as a program manager for real estate at the Medical Center’s Office of Planning, Design and Construction.

“UMMC has and continues to be a meaningful part of our families’ lives,” Liz Walker said.

Knowing the benches would be at Children’s of Mississippi also made the Eagle Scout project meaningful, Felton said.

“The doctors here made me healthy,” he said. “Children’s of Mississippi will always be special to me. I wanted to give back in some way to help other patients and their families.”