These people do not perform on TV, you almost never read articles about them in newspapers, and when you meet them in the street you hardly notice who is standing in front of you. However, their kind and unselfish deeds make this world brighter and purer. Therefore, we have decided to establish a new column about currently unknown heroes from Zaporizhia. These heroes are doctors, teachers, parents, and just people who care about our present and future generations and devote themselves to small miracles. We honestly hope that more and more people will find out about the amazing deeds of our ordinary Zaporizhia dwellers and that “the kindness epidemic” will affect all our readers! Perhaps you yourself work, live or study with such magicians? Then tell us about them and we will try to introduce them to as many people as possible!
The first hero of our column is Genadiy Ushakov, a former military pilot, now a retired creator of an amazing wooden town around his multistoried building. If you would like to be introduced to the inhabitants of this wooden town, follow us!
Genadiy Pavlovich used to serve in the Far East. Night duty provided him with ample time to carve veneer figures or do pokerwork. Today he can create a wooden miracle not only out of sawed tree branches, but from almost any materials on hand such, as old boxes, barrels, as well as boards. The neighbours supply Genadiy Pavlovich with all the necessary materials.
Here you can see town musicians of Bremen and next to them riding his horse, a brave Cossack named Vasya.
And here you can recognize the kind Russian fairy-tale hero, an old grandma Baba-Yaga with a young girl and a cat. The author of these wooden figures jokes that all the prototypes are inspired by real people.
Sometimes such wooden citizens, like this one you can see on this picture, transform into new characters.
And this is a tribute to his life-long profession, a monument of a female pilot Polina Osypenko. The author says that local children often ask him about this pilot, so this way they learn new pages of our great history.
This lovely walrus will always remind Genadiy Pavlovich of his dearly beloved Chukchi Peninsula.
Not a single holiday can go without such a composition.
Written on this picture "Happy 8th of March, dear ladies!"
While many people keep on complaining about poor conditions of building entrances and passiveness of the local community services, our hero just makes his surroundings look more and more lovely. Thanks to his initiative, the building he lives in was renovated a few years ago. Former Zaporizhia mayor Evgeniy Kartashov came to see the wooden sculptures made by Genadiy Pavlovich and supported his fellow tenants’ wishes for building renovations.
"This tree was growing", - says Genadiy Pavlovich. "It used to benefit people. One day the tree was cut. But thanks to these simple tools it goes on cheering people up, and it seems like this tree gets a new life".
The sculptor plans to carve a Victory Day installation. Genadiy Pavlovich recollects how he once made wooden cannon – the boys could not help hanging around it!
As soon as the front garden starts to bloom, the wooden town will turn into a tiny glade of fairy tales.
