Heather Goodling
Heather first learned about Eagle’s Nest when her next door neighbors, Mariella and Joe Huber, invited her family up to visit camp one summer when she was six years old. Mariella’s father, Dr. Alex Waite, founded Eagle’s Nest Camp, and Mariella lived in a log cabin that she had moved to the Settlement right on the other side of the three lakes near camp many years before. Heather’s family stayed at one of the little privately owned cabins, and she got to attend camp as a day camper once she had met Helen Waite, who encouraged her to come over and give camp a try. Heather started coming to camp soon after that. She was a camper and JC and eventually a summer camp counselor. She held the position of Head Counselor for several years. Heather is now serving on the Board of Trustees of ENF (since the fall of 2007), as well as working as a Parent Counselor along with her husband Beaver while her children, Daniel and Jacob, attend camp and Hante regularly each summer.
Heather grew up in Gainesville, Florida, right next to the Hubers. She studied math and French at the University of Florida where she met her future husband Beaver. She and Beaver worked each summer at Eagle’s nest throughout college and then moved to Atlantic Beach after graduating and getting married. Heather earned her master’s degree in mathematics at UNF, and after teaching there for nine years, she joined Barnet Bank as a statistical modeler. She is now a Senior Vice President of the merged company, Bank of America. She still gets to work at camp for part of a session each summer and has enjoyed watching her boys grow up at Eagle’s Nest. Daniel is now a Junior Counselor at camp and Jacob is preparing for his first international Hante journeying to Australia.
Heather feels very fortunate to have Eagle’s Nest in her life. Her camp experiences have helped her tremendously in business, and she continues to excel in some of the skills she developed at camp, such as music and acting. She is a member of her church contemporary band, The Grateful Bread, singing and playing keyboard or guitar. She participates regularly in church dramas and acts in plays at her local community theater at Jacksonville Beach. Her sons Jacob and Daniel both excel in music and drama as well, and they continue to foster their love for those disciplines, as well as the great outdoors, each year at camp. Eagle’s Nest is a real part of the Goodling family and they consider each moment spent there very precious, representing experiences and learnings in their lives that cannot be replaced by anything else.
