RICHMOND, Va. -- One of the cars racing around Richmond Raceway over NASCAR weekend will feature Virginia DMV employee Viola Barnes.
"This is quite overwhelming for me. But, I'm honored," Barnes said.
Barnes' image is plastered on Joey Gase's number 35 car.
The car is sponsored by the organ donor non-profit Donate Life Virginia. As in years past, the car features someone who has given or needs an organ.
Barnes is one of 2,400 Virginians waiting.
After 14 years of battling chronic kidney disease, her organs failed in 2020 when her oldest son, Gerald Blackmon, Jr., died of an undiagnosed childhood heart disease.
"All that stress took hold of me and cause my kidneys to go ahead and fail...I had to make a choice to either give up or push," she said.
She chose to push.
"If he were here, going through this journey with me, there's no way he'd let me give up," she said.
Barnes credits her support network, including coworkers, many of whom have their own organ donation stories, for pushing her.
"When it's our time, if we can extend our lives by giving life to someone else I think it's beneficial," Jennifer Frazier said, whose dad has had a kidney and liver transplant.
For Gase, the organ donation message hits close to home.
His mother Mary died of a brain aneurysm in 2011. The family opted to donate her organs and helped 66 people.
"And went home and found her driver's license, she was a registered donor," Gase said. "So knowing that we made the right decision for her was really good for us."
Gase now encourages families to talk about their preferences. He races with people like Barnes on the back noting the importance her job has in the organ donation process.
"The DMV, sometimes, people wait in line for a while. It's not always the happiest place for them to be, but if these people didn't ask that question. There won't be nearly the amount of organ donors that there are here today," he said.
By placing her handprint and good luck message on the back of Gase's car, Barnes hopes that everyone watching the race this weekend (including her, which will be a first) will come to see her Monday morning at the DMV and make the choice to give life.
"What do you got to lose? You're going to be giving a gift to someone else who needs it and a piece of you is going to live it's a no-brainer," she said.
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