A total of 22,000 hryvnias were raised at a charity auction featuring arts and crafts made by Volyn’s disabled.
LUTSK-The day of the auction was a lucky one for the Minkovsky couple from Novovolynsk. Both the husband and wife are Group 1 invalids. None of the buyers at the auction passed up the opportunity to view their exhibit. In the first minutes of the auction Volyn’s well-known builder Viktor Chornukha bought the most interesting work, a clock made of bamboo sticks, for which he paid nearly twice the starting bid. Baskets and vases made of sheets of veneer were selling like hotcakes. Anatolii Hrytsiuk, the head of the Oblast Council, bought the largest vase. He also chose a painting entitled Matterhorn by the artist Larysa Nazaruk for 500 hryvnias.
Valia Minkovska is very short as a result of a congenital disease that prevented her from growing. At the auction she was glowing with joy not because her works were being sold, but because she has a naturally sunny disposition.
Although she cannot walk, and her husband only has one leg, this fantastically optimistic couple has raised two healthy children. They also own a business that provides jobs to local residents. The veneer sheets that they use are actually recycled materials, which they turn into truly beautiful crafts. Valia says that they can also make nice furniture made of osier, but for this they need a small injection of capital, which they don’t have. “A disabled person can be useful to other people as well as to the state,” she commented. The Minkovskys were recently invited to Poland, where they brought their crafts to a convention of handicapped people. Ivan was given a pair of light crutches, which are not produced in Ukraine. Last year Valentyna and Ivan raised 700 hryvnias at a similar auction. This year’s profits were incomparably higher.
It was also a lucky day for Vitia Shvets, a talented Volyn artist who attends the Kyiv Academy of Arts. He lost his hearing because of disease. One of his paintings entitled Venetsiia was purchased for a record price by a member of the Pan Kurchak Agricultural-Industrial Group. At one time this talented young artist was given a helping hand by the PryvatBank, which organized an exhibit of his works. Mykola Romaniuk, the former head of this banking institution, took a long making his choice until he settled on one of Vitia’s works, for which he paid 1,000 hryvnias. Vitia’s mother says that her son needs a new hearing aid and a computer.
Nearly 140 works were on display at the auction. Although some did not find a buyer (like an embroidered shirt for 700 hryvnias), Anatolii Nykoniuk, the head of the Horodyshche Company, based in Lutsk raion, paid 600 hryvnias for an embroidered icon of St. Svitlana as a present for his daughter. Iryna Nadiukova, an artist from Volodymyr-Volynsky, sold a batik work entitled Wheel of Life. Ivan Kechma’s carved plates with a hunting theme found many eager buyers. One female buyer bought a disabled girl’s beaded work for 400 hryvnias even though it was not the best quality. Her purchase demonstrates the nature of such auctions: help however you are able.
