As Mary Lou Fulton dabbed her eyes with a tissue, a procession of 22 students paraded from the wings of the Pardoe Theatre and presented her with roses and personal letters of thanks for her generous contribution Thursday. As the last student gave her a rose, Donny and Marie Osmond came on stage to add their thanks.

The presentation of roses closed a ceremony in the Harris Fine Arts Center honoring Mary Lou and Ira Fulton for their $5 million donation, which created the Mary Lou Fulton Chair in Theatre and Media Arts. The donation is the largest single academic chair in BYU's history.

The chair, an endowment, will directly go to improving student education in theatre and media arts at BYU. The chair's primary purpose is to give direct student assistance in the form of scholarships, grants, awards and internship opportunities.

It will additionally go toward enhancing the equipment students can access, and will help to further develop the faculty and allow more theatre and media arts professionals to come to BYU.

"One nice thing about a chair is that it goes on forever," Mary Lou Fulton said. "When we're gone - and we're getting up there - it'll be nice that it keeps on going and keeps on giving to these students."

Fulton wants students to use the resources available through the chair to create a new standard in entertainment, a standard of "integrity, modesty and faith."

"I think we all feel like we have a mission to fulfill," she said. "I'm certainly fulfilling mine. I think all these students should have that feeling."

Chantelle Squires, a senior from Lehi, received a scholarship from the Mary Lou Fulton Chair.

"I'm extremely grateful for a number of reasons," Squires said. "One, it helps the personal project that I have. But also the equipment that we have gotten from the generous donations have facilitated students getting jobs. I'm getting a job right after I graduate because I had access to learn on professional equipment for the past four years."

President Cecil O. Samuelson spoke and personally thanked Fulton for her donation.

When thanking Fulton, Donny Osmond said he had a director tell him, "The theater is where people can come to dream in public." Osmond said Fulton is creating and perpetuating this dream for millions of people.

Fulton said she was excited to see the Osmonds because she has been a big fan since, "I took my daughter to see the Osmond group in Tucson, and I came home deaf."

The ceremony was highlighted by a variety of student media and theatre art performances. Joni Clausen and Diane Rane performed a dramatic scene of two women's survival of a 1930s Russian labor camp, while music and dance theatre majors sang and danced in honor of Mary Lou Fulton. The Children's Media Initiative, which brings fables and fairy tales to life for young children, presented a short video clip of a children's show.
Copyright Brigham Young University 27 Feb 2004