Vera Buczynsky, née Wesolowsky, was born in the town of Mykulyntsi,
Terebovlia county, in Western Ukraine. She completed her secondary education in 1939 at the Gymnasium of the Ridna Shkola Ukrainian Educational Society in Ternopil. She graduated from the Pedagogical Lyceum in Berezhany with a teacher’s diploma. Already in her youth she demonstrated enormous ability and affinity for organizational work, as well as an interest in literature and art. While at the Gymnasium she became a member of the Marian Sodality, student choir, and drama troupe, where her forté was recitation and dramatic reading. With the
Bolshevik invasion of Ukraine, the Buczynsky family was forced to abandon their homeland and suffer untold hardships and migration abroad. In Germany after the war, Mrs. Buczynsky became a member of the Ukrainian Women’s Alliance and held positions in its executive, travelling with the organization’s delegation to Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria.

In 1949, the Buczynsky family immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg. Vera promptly joined the drama troupes there, and performed in numerous leading roles. Gifted with a naturally beautiful voice, she sang the roles of Terpelykha in Natalka from Poltava and Odarka in Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube. The Buczynsky family joined the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Vera became a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada (UCWLC). In this organization she distinguished herself as an exemplary member, organizer, leader, and excellent speaker. Her greatest contribution, however, was as editor of the UCWLC quarterly publication “Nasha Doroha” for 25 years, starting from 1974 and continuing to 1999. From the very start of her work as editor, Mrs. Buczynsky paid scrupulous attention to the aesthetic formatting of the magazine, its content, and to articles that would reflect the work of our great UCWLC family, including the platforms of our organization. As a very proud Ukrainian nationalist, she strove to preserve the religious and national profile of the UCWLC. Between 1974 and 1977 she was its National President and was later awarded a distinguished honorary life membership.

In 1987, the Buczynskys moved to Mississauga and became members of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, where Vera continued to lead a very active and productive life in the Ukrainian community. She held executive positions with World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, the World Federation of Free Ukrainians and the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, just to name a few. In 1968, she initiated a wide-ranging campaign to assist Ukrainian children in Brazil, which spread to other UCWLC branches throughout Manitoba. Over the years, she received numerous awards, medals, certificates and special blessings from both Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI. In 1965, together with a delegation from Winnipeg, she flew to Rome to participate in the installation of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj. Vera Buzynsky was truly a remarkable leader in the Ukrainian community and the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada. The National UCWLC is proud to offer a scholarship for Ukrainian Language Studies in her name.