Children join Dignitaries to Break Ground for New Education Facility
Armed with hard hats and shovels, children from the Sound Beginnings Preschool in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services took part in the Oct. 2 groundbreaking ceremony.
Also taking part were board members and representatives from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, the Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and administrators from throughout the university.
A crowd of all ages gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Emma Eccles Jones Early Childhood Education and Research Center and the Dolores Doré Eccles Center for Early Care and Education.
Children from the Sound Beginnings Preschool in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services got their hands a little dirty as they joined with other older dignitaries Oct. 2 at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Emma Eccles Jones Early Childhood Education and Research Center and the Dolores Doré Eccles Center for Early Care and Education.
The children came armed with mini-shovels and junior hard hats emblazoned with the name of the building’s namesake, “Emma,” to clear ground for the new building. They were joined by board members and representatives from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, the Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and administrators from throughout the university.
The new facilities are the result of two major gifts announced in the past year. A $25 million gift from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation, announced in December 2007, will support design and construction of the new building and five endowed faculty chairs in early childhood education. An additional $1 million gift, announced in April 2008, from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation will support a new Center for Early Care and Education named for Dolores Doré Eccles.
USU President Stan L. Albrecht said the new facility will extend the research that has helped elevate the college to national and world leadership in teaching, research and service in the area of early child care and education. He added that the symbolic importance of this groundbreaking event is also critical. The economic turmoil that is occurring in the world is something the university will get through, but not quickly and not without a great deal of additional pain.
“It is important that we demonstrate without reservation or equivocation that this great university will continue to move forward in its quest for even greater excellence,” Albrecht said. “As Robert Merton so aptly described, we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. In a similar manner, we stand on the shoulders of those of this generation who teach in our classrooms and make enormously important new discoveries in their research laboratories.
“And today, particularly, we stand on the shoulders of kind and generous donors who make projects like the one we celebrate today possible. We owe it to them to demonstrate that despite the economic chaos that surrounds us, we will not lose the vision and the commitment that will propel us to a future of even greater accomplishment and excellence.”
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Writer: Tim Vitale, 435-797-1356, tim.vitale@usu.edu
