Only the - Cook Children's

Building pride
Taylor Marks earned the rank of Eagle Scout
by choosing Cook Children’s Medical Center
as his not-for-profit to help, leaving behind a
playground and proud father.
As medical director of the Movement Disorder and
Neurorehabilitation program at Cook Children’s, Warren Marks,
M.D., has accomplished plenty and is a leader in his field, giving
lectures throughout the world. You may be surprised at what
makes Dr. Marks beam with pride. It’s the playground on the
south lawn of the medical center.
The playground shows off the handy work of his son Taylor,
who earned his Eagle Scout badge from the Boy Scouts of
America by helping design the playground and lead a team to
build the retaining wall around it. All of this was before Taylor
even stepped foot on the campus of the University of Mississippi
as a freshman in August 2010.
Dr. Marks first became involved with the Boy Scouts nearly
15 years ago with his older son, Spencer. He is a former
scoutmaster for Troop 326 and continues to be involved in the
program. Dr. Marks calls the Boy Scouts an unbeatable program
that has allowed him to spend time traveling with his sons across
the United States and around the world, including Switzerland,
Germany, England and Canada.
“The Boy Scouts have given me so much time with my
children,” Dr. Marks said. “It offers them leadership opportunities
and a value-driven lifestyle. It truly impacts the lives of these
boys.”
Dr. Marks estimates only 4 percent of Scouts earn Eagle Scout
and now both of his boys hold the prestigious recognition. The
Eagle Scout project is designed to benefit the community, and
is usually to help not-for-profits, like Cook Children’s. Spencer
earned Eagle Scout for his work with the Fort Worth Zoo.
After floating ideas around, Taylor became involved in helping
to design a handicap-accessible playground. Taylor worked with
a design crew and helped develop the playground.
“I liked the idea of working with Cook Children’s because I had
been on the original playground before and it was very apparent
that there was no way for handicapped children to participate
in any of the activities,” Taylor said. “My goal was to design a
playground that would be inclusive of their needs.”
With the largest expansion project in the medical center’s
history under way, it looked as if the playground was only going
to be temporary. Dr. Marks said now it seems like it may stay
around for a while.
“Until they need the south lawn, apparently they are going to
leave it as a family playground,” Dr. Marks said. “I’d never seen
many people on it before they moved it out of the fenced area.
Now you see kids on it all the time.”
Along with months of planning, the boys, led by Taylor,
were responsible for putting up the retaining wall around the
playground. They took five retaining walls from the old Fort
Worth Children’s Hospital, dismantled them by hand, stacked
the rocks on palates, brought the rocks to Cook Children’s and
rebuilt the wall. Over the course of two weekends, the boys
moved close to 32,000 pounds and 24 pallets of stone.
Taylor went through a training session with the landscape
people on how to properly lay and level the rock wall. The Eagle
Scout’s job is to be the supervisor, while the adults are there to
serve as advisors and workers.
“It makes me very proud. I watched my son and two dozen
other boys get their Eagle Scout while I was Scout Master,” Dr.
Marks said. “It’s really important to step back and let him do the
job. Anybody who has done this knows it would certainly be a lot
faster to let the adults do the project themselves, but that’s not
what this is all about. It was nice to give him an appreciation for
things that happen where I come to work every day. It was nice
to give them all this opportunity to give back to the community.”
After the expansion, Cook Children’s will provide more
play areas for kids. When it opens later this year, an indoor
playground for recreation will connect to an outdoor playground,
offering a new basketball court, movie screen, expanded play
areas, a play lawn and even a place to play checkers and
hopscotch.
16 Children’s Promise | The magazine of Cook Children’s