Eagle Scout builds outdoor classroom
Eagle Scout Marston Tweed constructed an outdoor classroom for DCS Montessori School.
By Elizabeth Wood West, photo provided by the Tweed family
Fourteen-year-old Castle Pines resident and Eagle Scout Marston Tweed has been involved in the Castle Pines community most of his life. Tweed began Scouting as a Tiger Cub with Castle Pines Pack 826 and earned the rank of Eagle Scout with Sedalia Boy Scout Troop 637. Tweed, a freshman at Rock Canyon High School, looked around the community he grew up in and found the perfect Eagle Scout project; he rebuilt DCS Montessori School’s outdoor classroom, which had been destroyed in the spring of 2010.
Tweed built six benches, put down fresh mulch, and weeded the hillside next to the classroom setting. Tweed said, “I feel the whole school has benefited from this project. I attended the school for nine years, so I knew the staff very well and knew that Mr. Albert (upper-elementary lead teacher) was very happy to have an outdoor classroom again,” he said. “I was looking for a project to do and I felt this was a way to give back to the school.”
The most challenging part of Tweed’s project was the actual execution of the construction plan and managing his volunteers. Tweed said, “We had some difficulty keeping the kids engaged and working, but we got them to work and the project was completed well. I learned a lot from the project. It required so much planning and time, but I also had to work during the school year, so time management was a huge lesson learned. Because I worked with so many different people, I learned how to talk and work with them,” said Tweed.
Scouting has played a big role in Tweed’s life. He was able to fly a plane at Centennial Airport as part of completing an aviation merit badge, and he and his best friend attended a camp-out in the Florida Keys. “There is so much you can do in Scouts and I want to help the other kids reach Eagle Scout. It’s the trips and things you do in Scouts that makes Boy Scouts so great,” Tweed said.
