LYNNWOOD—A Lynnwood woman, Rosanna Vinton, and her mother, Joanie, will be contestants on the upcoming season of Relative Race, a show that pits four teams of family members against each other to try and win a $50,000 prize by being the first to track down their long-lost relatives.
Even those who aren’t awarded the grand prize are awarded something far more precious and valuable: the knowledge of their genealogical history and family members to reconnect with.
Joanie was adopted at an early age and never had the opportunity of getting to know her biological family. Her oldest daughter Rosanna, 28, in turn, was raised by her grandparents due to her mother’s long history with substance abuse.
Joanie, who is now two years sober, struggled with being adopted all her life, believing her biological family didn’t want her. Now that she’s turned her life around the idea of reconnecting with her biological family, all while getting closer to her daughter has been on her mind.
When Joanie saw a targeted add on Facebook promoting that Relative Race was searching for talent she jumped at the opportunity.
“[This opportunity] meant everything to me,” Joanie told the Lynnwood Times. “It was meant to be so that I could get closer to my daughter.”
Filming took one month from last September through October, when the mother and daughter began tracking down their relatives, searching for clues and links to their roots, and setting out on the voyage of reunion.
One challenge, the contestants noted, is that they weren’t allowed to use any technology. This includes cell phones or GPS tracking devices – only paper maps to navigate.
Surprisingly, despite being in the late 90’s, Rosanna was quick to take upon that challenge leading the navigational efforts through her paper map literacy.
In this first episode, which airs this Sunday, Rosanna and Joanie successfully locate a long-lost cousin and find out an astonishing fact: Joanie’s father is still alive. To find out if they’re successful in tracking him down, or to see what other family members they’re able to reconnect with, however, you’ll just have to tune in.
“Family are the people who love you, whether biological or not,” said Rosanna. “When you don’t know your biological family, you don’t know what your situation is. What we learned is that there were at least (a handful) of people that knew we existed and wanted to meet us. They opened their hearts to us. They just knew we existed and wanted to know us.”
Joanie and Rosanna’s adventure promises to be filled with lots of tears, laughter, love and a shocking conclusion, the network promises.
Whether they’re successful tracking down their relatives or not, or whether they walk away $50,000 richer, will be left to the show’s conclusion.
“If I hadn’t gotten accepted on this show I never would have looked (for my family),” said Joanie. “It’s expensive but if you ever have the opportunity – do it.”
Season 15 of Relative Race, featuring Rosanna and Joanie Vinton, will be available to stream for free this Sunday, March 16, on BYUtv and the BYUtb app.
You can check out previous seasons here: https://www.byutv.org/relative-race
Author: Kienan Briscoe
