Difference makers

Vera Dixon

Everyone makes a difference, some in big ways, others in small ways, but everyone matters. The Cook County News- Herald is starting a column dedicated to celebrating those that make their community a better place to live. It can be through volunteer efforts or through the job they do that benefits society. One doesn’t have to be old to be someone who contributes something of great value. Even the youngest amongst us qualify as a difference maker. Send information to ccnh@boreal.org to nominate someone you feel brightens your life or brightens the lives of many.

Meet Vera

Vera was born in Plovdiv, a beautiful city in south-central Bulgaria, but she grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital city.

In February 2016, after a lengthy adoption process by Julie MacLean and her husband Sean Dixon, fifteen-year-old Vera moved to Indianapolis.

Following the September 2017 devastation to Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, Vera, then a high school sophomore, sought to help out. She had a role in the school’s performance of In the Heights, so she developed a plan to collect monetary donations from people attending the musical. Those donations were gathered and coordinated with a charitable organization to ensure they would address the hurricane’s impacts in Puerto Rico.

Somewhat unassuming, Vera was twice nominated as Homecoming Queen, an honor she twice declined.

During the summer between her sophomore and junior years, Vera was accepted by the Indiana University Foreign Language Program to live with a family in Spain for six weeks.

“In order for her to be accepted, she asked me for a recommendation,” said grandfather David MacLean, who with his wife Bonnie lives on Devil Track Lake. “I gladly accepted and found the task easy. As a retired Professor of Biology at Youngstown State University, I have written dozens of similar requests, but none as easy as this one. Questions such as, “How would this student react to a different culture?” and many others were easy to answer. As a child growing up in Sofia, Bulgaria, Vera learned three different languages and was exposed to different cultures. She even learned to ski in the Bulgarian mountains. “In school, she excelled in accounting courses,” added David.

“Sofia is a lovely city surrounded by mountains,” said Julie. “During our short visit, Sean and I enjoyed being introduced to the city, its food (Sean loved lutenitsa, a popular red pepper and tomato spread), and its history by Vera. We especially loved a visit to the National Historical Museum, where Vera acted as our personal tour guide, proudly showing us the various exhibits and explaining their rich historical significance.

“Since Vera came to the U.S., she has introduced us to some Bulgarian traditions, such as the wearing of a red and white yarn bracelet called a Martenitsa in early spring. “We wear our bracelets until we see either a stork, a swallow, or a blossoming tree.” Because we live in Indianapolis, we typically see a flowering tree first, so we usually hang our bracelets on one of our Bradford pear trees or our forsythia tree to fulfill the tradition of welcoming the spring.”

After graduating high school in Indianapolis, Vera is now attending Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis as a computer science major. Her grandfather notes, “Bonnie and I received our PhDs from the main campus of Purdue University back in the late 60s.”

Her mother says, “Vera’s greatest passion is dancing, especially salsa and bachata dancing. She was on a team that performed at a salsa conference in Atlanta in February 2020, just before the COVID- 19 pandemic started in the U.S.”

Vera is certainly a difference-maker, not only for what she has overcome and for her efforts to assist others who are less fortunate, but in the way she conducts herself and the great joy she gives her parents and proud grandparents!