Hello, My name is Yolanda and my siblings and our children are asking for your help to PLEASE help us make our Father's/Grandfather's DYING WISH come true. His name is Richard Gendron and known to most who know him as Ric The Artist. He is a father of 3 and grandfather of 12 and great-grandfather of 4 soon to be 5. My father is someone you may have seen in the local news or read about in the Spokesman Review, The Inlander, Indian Country Today or many other magazines or even one of the two books that have been written about him because he has become a very successful and internationally known Artist throughout the years. If you are a Spokane resident you may have had the pleasure of seeing some of his work that hangs downtown on the side of the Ruby Motel of some Jazz Musicians just kittycorner from The Historic Davenport Hotel or in the food court at River Park Square. Our father has traveled all over the nation and sold his artwork and worked with many galleries all over the United States and Canada and has won many awards for simply doing what he loves which is creating beautiful artwork for everyone to enjoy. He has also taught many classes at a few different colleges in the Inland Northwest so he can help others learn to follow their dreams and create more beautiful art to be shared with the world. He grew up in a home with 10 siblings, 6 sisters and 3 brothers and their mother and father and this upbringing molded him into the amazing kind hearted, free spirited, very loving, extremely giving, goal oriented, extrodinary family man his is today and has always been throughout his entire life. As a child I recall there were a few years when my father Ric had taken in a bunch of my cousins to live with us when we returned to the Spokane area because our family grew up close so our cousins were more our sisters and brothers than just cousins. At one point I recall we had 12 kids in our household that my dad had taken in and given a kind loving fun-filled home, only 2 of those 12 were his biological children, with whom we had family dinners most every night and always had a house full of laughter and love even though there were many times we did not have a whole lot financially it was never the material things that mattered to us because we had each other and a home full of love and laughter where my dad taught us all about our Native American traditional ways and reminded us the true value of love and family. I remember as a small child when our dad had first decided to give up the everyday 9-5 and truly follow his dreams to become a self-sufficient successful full-time artist like most artists it was a rough beginning and we really struggled to make ends meet many times but we always believed and trusted in our father because we knew he would never let us go without what we needed and we never went to bed hungry because he was and still is a very hard worker that has made his entire very proud to see how all of his hard work, endless hours and dedication has paid off and he has lived his dream of becoming a full-time self-employed artist. Still to this day, our father will give a person in need his last dime and literally the shirt off his back to help anyone in need. Our father is absolutely the strongest most loving and most generous man so many of us know.

Just a couple of months ago our father was on a kidney transplant list and was getting so close to finally having a kidney replacement surgery when all of a sudden things took a drastic turn for the worst and we were told that he may only have 48 hours to live but with our entire family coming together in that tiny hospital room and so many of his sweatlodge brother showing up we joined together in many many prayers and offered up many sweatlodge songs so through the power of prayer we were blessed with the amazing news that a bed had opened up for him and he was going to be heartflighted immediately out to a big hospital that was going to have the ability to give him the proper care he needed and that this was going to give him much more time than 48 hours. When our father arrived at the hospital he was taken in for emergency because some testing for the kidney transplant had discovered some abnormalities. After my fathers emergency surgery we were informed that my father now had stage 3 cancer and was being removed from the kidney transplant list. The following week when my siblings and I had taken my father in for a follow-up appointment with an oncologist we were then informed that further testing had revealed that our father did not have stage 3 cancer but he actually has Stage 4 Neuroendocrine Cancer and that they did not expect him to make it even 6 months. Because this type of cancer is extremely aggressive and will eventually attack his brain in a very short period of time. While we were growing up my father always owned a large van because he always had so many kids in the household and we did a whole lot of traveling most weekends of the summer and we would camp and go to PowWows to Drum and Dance and live our Native American ways and enjoy our culture events but he also had to have a large vehicle to transport his large pieces of artwork. Although there have been times over the years that he has had the ability to purchase a nice newer vehicle for his travels and work he has always worried more about using his money to take care of his large family with whatever they may need. He has paid for things such as down payments on cars for people, hundreds of dollars for basketball tournament entry fees and travel expenses, given people the money to pay deposits to move into houses, helped cover medical expenses for his loved ones, always made sure all the children had great birthdays and holidays even when it was not his responsibilities, he continues to open his home to anyone in need and will never let anyone go hungry so he has taken large groups of people out to enjoy more meals then we can ever attempt to count because nobody was ever left out and the things that make our father the happiest is knowing he can help his family and do anything he possibly can for them. Our family is reaching out to you to share with you our father's story so you can get a glimpse of the man we are asking for your help in making his final wish come true. Our father has never owned a vehicle in made in the same decade that we live in but has wanted to for many years and given that he lives hours away from the location that I will be driving him to dialysis three times a week a good dependable vehicle is definitely a necessity. Our father is a Honda man he loves his Hondas and we would like to be able to get him a Honda Pilot that will not only be used for his medical needs but also to take one final family trip so that all of his kids and grandkids will get to share in the memory and understand why our best childhood memories have come from the countless family road trips we took every weekend all together as a family. Our father always wanted to move to Santa Fe, NM his favorite place in the United States but he never made that move for himself because he could not bring himself to move away from his family. We plan to rent an Airbnb that will be large enough for all 20 of us to actually stay together so we can enjoy home-cooked meals together as well as go out and enjoy some of the Native Restaurants in the area as most of us this will be our first time in New Mexico. The funds we are trying to raise are specifically for the vehicle for our father, to cover travel expenses for all the gas for the vehicles that will be driving down and back, pay for 5 nights at the Airbnb in Santa Fe and a night or two of motels along the way down and on the way back because we will be stopping at certain locations to make sure that he is still getting his 4hour dialysis treatment 3 times a week so the route we will be driving will be made to compensate our father's treatments. He will absolutely be getting all the medical services he needs along the way. We are choosing to do this in June so he will be in his favorite place for Father's Day with all the people he loves and it will still be early enough in his condition that he will be able to remember the trip. We know that the cost of living is outrageous in this day and age so any small donation you may be able to assist our father with is so extremely appreciated, there is definitely no gift too small. If you have any kind of helpful suggestion that may help cut some costs or expenses for this family trip please feel free to reach out because any kind of help we can get will be so greatly appreciated. Our father means so much to so many people and makes his final wish come true even though we have such a short amount of time to do it in I do believe that with the power of prayer and all the love out there for him we can MAKE IT HAPPEN TOGETHER. Thank you so very much for taking the time to read this and I pray it finds you and your family in good spirits and the best of health. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY DONATION HOWEVER LARGE OR SMALL.