Quick Heads Up For Mike Lenoard Fantasy Artist & The 'Tire Fund'

You can reach Mike via his Deviant Art page right
HERE

 Or his Facebook page right over
HERE

On occasion there are friends of the OSR community that need our help, fantasy artist  Mike Leonard finds himself in real trouble. He's in a bit of some dire straits and needs our help to dust off with some commission work within the next five hours so he can afford tires for his car!  He's got a fifty mile round trip to work and back home.
I know what this sort of journey is like. My dad and I did it for five years back in the early 80's. Its no fun add to this the weight that he must be feeling.  I feel for the gentleman.
So I'm doing my part to get the word out there for him and his family. Here's the low down from his Deviant Art page : 

• Mood:  Suffering

I am in desperate need of some immediate funds. 

Flat tire, no spare, 50 mile round trip to work everyday.

Used car, had to ask the dealer for a jack. Tires weren't new, but weren't bald either. Bought the car 15 months ago.

Tire had a slow leak, but I babied it until last night. Got the jack out, jacked the car up a bit, jack doubled over on itself breaking.

Midnight, a friend answers the call, brings his jack.

Get the baby spare on, turns out to be the wrong size, locks the brake.

Put the flat back on to move the car off the private lot where I changed it, friend graciously gave me a ride home.

Now I need to buy a tire, although the matching one is in pretty bad shape too...

Flash commission sale!

I need a minimum of 4 commissions at half my character portrait rates ($25 an character!) and preferably 8 (to get a matching set of front tires).

Full color, character in a scene, big enough to print at your local shop at poster size (10,000 dpi on the long side). 

It's 8:50AM Central Standard Time, I need these in the next 5 hours!

Please help out a friend, get the word out, help an artist in a jam, And let's get this guy back on the road for his family.
Thanks folks 

Ernie Gygax House Fire

Feb, 17. 2013 - One of our own lost everything . Ernest "Ernie" Gary Gygax Jr. had a fire which destroyed his home and all of his possessions Ernie escaped along with his room mate, and his beloved dog. For now, please share your wishes of support. It will take several days to put the mechanisms in place in order for any donations to be accepted for Ernie

From the desk of Tim Kask :

Ernie's Inferno

Update: 7:00 PM EST

There has been a tremendous outpouring of support for Ernie. Luke is talking to a lawyer in Lake Geneva (a fellow gamer) to see how to best set this up so as to minimize Ernie's exposure to the IRS.

As soon as we have an account in place, we will spread the word.

There is a move to do something about donating sales of PDF's by certain companies on a given day to Ernie.

There is interest in some sort of e-Bay auction of things donated to the benefit of Ernie.

We might do something at GaryCon in the Auction, but I rather think that might be redundant by then.

We are considering setting up a "Friends of EGG, Jr. FB page as a central coordination nexus.

For right now, my page and the Gygax Magazine page will have the latest info. After Tuesday, it will be on the GM page as I travel to TotalCon on Wed and don't return until late Sunday night.

We want to do this right, keep Ernie out of tax trouble, and allow everyone that wants to help a chance to do so.

I have always known that gamers always close ranks for their own.

Stay Tuned to The Gygax Magazine's Facebook page for more information. Go right over HERE
 There already is a Facebook page that has been set up for relief efforts on Facebook right Here
My thoughts and prayers are with Ernie and the rest of the Gygax family. I'm so glad that everyone is alive this evening.  Thank you for attention.