NASCAR Driver Joey Gase Returns to Cedar Rapids to Inspire Iowans to Donate Life

Cedar Rapids, IA — NASCAR dri­ver and Cedar Rapids native Joey Gase is team­ing up with Iowa Donor Net­work to inspire race fans to reg­is­ter as organ, eye, and tis­sue donors when he returns to his home­town to par­tic­i­pate in the Big 8 Late Mod­el Series race this Fri­day, June 4^th and the ​“Be A Hero 30” 602 Late Mod­el race, spon­sored by Iowa Donor Net­work on Sat­ur­day, June 12^th at Hawk­eye Downs Speed­way. Gase’s race car will fea­ture a pho­to of John Van­der­Lin­den of Indi­anola who passed away in 2012 and saved five lives as an organ donor. VanderLinden’s daugh­ter Emi­ly plans to attend the June 4^th race and his daugh­ter Mal­lo­ry plans to attend the June 12^th race, both will meet Gase and get an up-close look at their dad’s pho­to on the race car. Mem­bers of the media are invit­ed to attend on both dates. 

Gase has been a pas­sion­ate advo­cate for organ and tis­sue dona­tion since the age of 18 when his Mom, Mary, passed away of a sud­den brain aneurysm and became a donor. Mary saved and improved the lives of 66 peo­ple through organ, eye, and tis­sue dona­tion. Gase is encour­ag­ing peo­ple to sub­mit a Mes­sage of Hope to be dis­played on his race care for the June 12^th race to help inspire all to donate life.

As of June 1^st, there are more than 107,000 peo­ple wait­ing for a life-sav­ing organ trans­plant in the Unit­ed States, includ­ing near­ly 600 in Iowa. A sin­gle organ donor can save up to eight lives and a sin­gle tis­sue donor can heal 50 – 300 peo­ple. Iowans can reg­is­ter to save lives at IowaDonor​Net​work​.org.

For more infor­ma­tion about Iowa Donor Net­work please vis­it our web­site at IowaDonor​Net​work​.org.