Photo provided by Dana Ullom-VucelichDana Ullom-Vucelich, left, poses with singer Donny Osmond, right, and the letter she wrote him over 50 years ago before his concert at the Capitol Theatre on Tuesday.
WHEELING — A letter written to Donny Osmond by a Shadyside second-grader during a moment of “Puppy Love” was hand-delivered to the singer by the sender over 50 years later, making a childhood dream a reality.
Columbus resident Dana Ullom-Vucelich delivered her note to the former teen idol before his concert at the Capitol Theatre in Wheeling this past Tuesday, allowing her to tie up the story between her and the singer that began in 1973 at the Ohio State Fair.
Ullom-Vucelich, who grew up in Shadyside, first saw Osmond perform on “The Andy Williams Show” as part of a quartet called the Osmonds with three of his older brothers. From that performance, she acquired a love for the group’s musical talents and “great smiles.”
“Their (the Osmonds) vocal harmonies were pure, and they sounded fantastic,” Ullom-Vucelich recalled. “They were all a triple threat that could sing, dance and act on top of playing many different instruments.”
The quartet member that stuck out the most to a 7-year-old Ullom-Vucelich was Donny Osmond, with her love for the singer deepening after seeing him at the Ohio State Fair.
After the show, Ullom-Vucelich was determined to reach out to the singer and let him know how much she appreciated the performance.
After acquiring an envelope from her parents, Ullom-Vucelich went through many sheets of paper as she tried to perfect the cursive that she had learned in school that year for the note.
“I had just learned cursive, and I remember practicing so hard,” Ullom-Vucelich said. “I threw away the first one I wrote because I didn’t like it. When I got done, I tried really hard to fold the letter in the envelope the right way.”
In the letter, Ullom-Vucelich tells Osmond she saw his “fantastic” performance at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus but, unfortunately, “he did not see her.” Then, getting sidetracked, she informs Osmond she fell off a seesaw and broke her arm. At the end of the note, Ullom-Vucelich gets back on track to request that Osmond send her a photo of himself.
More than 50 years later, Ullom-Vucelich received much more than a photo in return. While looking through a pile of sentimental items left behind by her late father, Bob Ullom, she discovered her letter to Osmond.
When she handed the letter to her parents all those years ago, Ullom-Vucelich assumed they had sent it. Now, with the letter back in her hands and tickets conveniently purchased to see Osmond’s Wheeling show with her sister, Debbie Mullin, on June 18, Ullom-Vucelich wanted to finally fulfill her second-grade dream.
“I reached out to Donny’s PR person and told them, ‘Hey, I’ve got this old letter that needs to make its way to Donny to tell him thanks for the memories,'” Ullom-Vucelich said. “Their PR person said that I could meet him before the show, so I called my sister and said, ‘You’re not going to believe what just happened.'”
While Ullom-Vucelich was nervous before meeting her childhood idol, she found him “more than approachable” when they met before the concert. When she handed over the letter, she recalled Osmond reading the note “with amusem*nt.”
“Donny is a grandfather at this point, so he picked up on how the letter sounds like a little kid wrote it,” Ullom-Vucelich said. “He smiled at that point where I was talking about how fantastic he is and then segued into the fact that I was on a seesaw and almost broke my arm. He was so gracious with the fact that my parents had saved the letter for sentimental reasons, and he was thankful for me reaching out.”
The interaction made Ullom-Vucelich feel like she was once again in second grade watching Osmond with his brothers on “The Andy Williams Show” or on stage at the Ohio State Fair.
“My present-day self is a professional in the business world, but for that moment, I was that little child again,” Ullom-Vucelich said. “I’m just happy to have those childhood memories, and it was a nice memory to relive with Donny.”
Osmond’s making time to meet Ullom-Vucelich, especially before his show, and also reading her letter reaffirmed Ullom-Vucelich’s love for the singer. She noted that she got to witness both aspects of what made her first fall in love with Osmond that night: his family-oriented values and his spontaneous energy on stage.
“When you have someone who’s such a public figure, there is not always access to them due to safety and security purposes,” Ullom-Vucelich said. “The fact that he respects his fanbase and has created the space in which he and his family can continue to be entertainers is admirable. Meeting him felt like coming face-to-face with the Donny I appreciated when I was young that I could still appreciate and value today as an older person for new reasons.”
Apart from the interaction giving her a new perspective on her favorite singer, the moment also gave Ullom-Vucelich a new outlook on her own parents, Robert and Beverly Ullom.
“I think my mom and dad saving the note was their way of paying it forward,” Ullom-Vucelich said. “Thinking back on when I was young, I am thankful for them all over again. They would make the two-and-a-half-hour trip all the way to Columbus just to sit with a bunch of screaming fans so their little girls could have a really good time. I just want to say to them, ‘Hey, your little girls are still having a good time.'”
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