Ladies Of Mercedes. The Newsletter of the Southwest Florida Section, MBCA PUTTIN ON THE RITZ. Inside This Issue

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1 The Newsletter of the Southwest Florida Section, MBCA Issue No. 2 March/April 2013 Ladies Of Mercedes PUTTIN ON THE RITZ Rick Kruse with his Mars Red SL at the February 9, 2013 Ft. Myers breakfast meeting. PAGE 4 Ron and Monica Cordeau's new-tothem beautiful SEL 6.3 sedan. Fantastic car with the M-100 V-8. Inside This Issue Issue:: Breakfast Meetings 1 Officer Listing 2 President s Column 2 MBCA Information 2 StarTech Ladies Tea at the Ritz 4 New & Renewing Members 6 Member Profile 9 Siege of Solomon s Castle 10 April M-B Car Show 12 Calendar of Coming Events 12 Monthly Breakfast Meetings Ft. Myers area... Mimi s Café 2nd Saturday of most months. Next Meetings - March 9, April 13 Naples area... Perkins on Pine Ridge 4th Saturday of most months. Next meetings - March 23, April 27 *(Ceramic mugs available from MBCA.org Store) Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

2 President Tom Harruff s Column March 2013 Greetings to all and welcome to our 12 new members since our last newsletter. Our Section membership currently stands at 295 members (as of ). Please keep up the good work and renew your individual efforts to bring in a new member this year. If you are happy with your Section, our Section activities, and the benefits of Club membership, you will be the best spokesman for recruiting new Club members. Membership applications are available at each Section event and by if you desire. Again, our thanks to Section member Jerry Kinderman for all of his work in updating the look and content of our newsletter. Our thanks to our advertisers who want to serve our members. We also want to thank Section member Peter Blackford for working with MBCA to establish a SWFL Section Web Site at: Check us out! Finally we also want to thank Section Member Mario Puente for establishing our very own Facebook Page at: Mercedes-Benz-Club-of-America/ All of these things are new and are growing in content as we learn how to best utilize their capabilities for the benefit of our members. Check them out! 2013 has been a very busy year so far for our Section with our breakfast meetings in Naples and Fort Myers, car shows and our Ladies of Mercedes Tea Time at the Ritz. Finally I want to recognize Mercedes-Benz of Naples for their recognition from Mercedes-Benz USA as a Mercedes-Benz Best of the Best Dealer based on outstanding performance in Congratulations and thank you for your past support to MBCA and the Southwest Florida Section. Tom Harruff, President, SWFL Section MBCA OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS: President: Tom Harruff tharruff1813@comcast.net Vice President/Treasurer: Glen Sholl gsholl@comcast.net Secretary: Anne Harruff AnneHarruff@comcast.net Membership Chair: Tom Harruff tharruff1813@comcast.net Section Directors: The Officers Named Above, and Chet Young chetyoung30@gmail.com Southeast Regional Director: Scott Suits Suits@ij.net Sunshine STAR Publisher: Tom Harruff 1943 Empress Ct., Naples, FL tharruff1813@comcast.net Newsletter Editor: Jerry Kinderman editor.swflmbca@yahoo.com Webmaster: Peter Blackford priuspete@gmail.com Facebook: Mario Puente mpuente-benz@hotmail.com Southwest Florida Section MBCA On The Web! and... Mercedes-Benz-Club-of- America/ There are so many reasons to become a member of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. For a nominal membership fee of $49 a year (U.S.) or $59 a year (Canada and International countries), Club members receive an impressive return on their annual investment. ~~ Some Member Benefits: The Star Magazine, Discounts on parts, service & accessories at participating Mercedes-Benz dealers, Loyalty Rewards Program, 15% discount on parts from the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, Discounts at Brooks Brothers, Sears, MedJet Assist, Forums and Interest groups on the MBCA website, and... this great newsletter from your own Section! Call your Section Officer at , or our National Business Office at M-F 8am-5pm MT. Or visit Sunshine STAR Newsletter design, Jerry Kinderman, 3/1/2013 Questions? Call your Section Officer at , or our National Business Office at M-F 8am-5pm MT. Or visit Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Registration has begun for StarTech 2013, May in Birmingham, AL. Register before March 15 and save $20 off registration fees! Come learn from experts on Mercedes-Benz vehicles. StarTech will feature speakers from Michelin, Mercedes-Benz Classic Center and Bosch, in addition to MBCA Star columnists Pierre Hedary, Jonathan Hodgman and George Murphy. Plus new technical experts you may not have met yet! Reps from well-known Mercedes- Benz suppliers will be there in person to teach Restoration, Maintenance, Performance and more. StarTech is not just for techies; it will also feature a number of interesting events. Sign-up for Parade laps around Barber Motorsports road course; take a special artist s tour of Cahaba Clay Works; get a behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center; meet with employees of Mercedes-Benz US International the only factory in the world that makes R-, ML-, GL-Class and (coming soon) C-Class vehicles. Come for the Tech. Stay for the Fun! Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

4 Southwest Florida Section Mercedes-Benz Club of America Ladies of Mercedes Tea Time at the Ritz February 16th was the date of this year s third Annual Ladies of Mercedes Afternoon Tea at the beautiful Naples Ritz-Carlton Luxury Resort overlooking the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Just entering their lobby lounge was a step in time back into the elegance that is the Ritz-Carlton. Their Afternoon Tea has been a Ritz-Carlton tradition for over 25 years. If you have never experienced an event like Afternoon Tea at the Ritz, you must join us next year to be pampered and treated as Southwest Florida Section Ladies of Mercedes. Twenty-one Southwest Florida Section lady club members and guests gathered to enjoy the wonderful selection of teas, scones, and deserts, then topping the Tea off with the click of a glass of champagne. As in the Ritz tradition, the table setting was just beautiful and the pianist playing a medley of classical selections and show tunes added to the ambience. We made new friends and gleaned information about one another for our memory books. Each lady was given a white long stemmed rose from the Section as a memento of the affair. Congratulations to Helga Calfo as the winner of the basket full of goodies provided by the Section. Five gentlemen accompanied their ladies to the RitzCarlton and enjoyed a breezy but comfortable lunch at the Poolside Café. Can you believe that all five were from Ohio at one time in their lives! Thanks to Anne Harruff, our Secretary and Activities Coordinator (whose birthday was on this day) for arranging this event. When everyone departed, we all had a sense of knowing we made new friends and new relationships were born. Isn t that the whole idea of these events? Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

5 C ongr a tula tions! Mercedes-Benz of Naples Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

6 Welcome! New Members and Associates, to the Southwest Florida Section, MBCA Mike and Michael Brown; Fred and Helga Calfo; David Cook; Leo D anniballe; Barron Dietz; Lennie Ehn and Ginger Lew; William and Scottie Ferry; Randall and Sandra Hartzell; John Phelan; Susan Phillips; Lewis and Cathleen Swift - and Thank You! to our 22 Renewed Members for your continuing MBCA membership. It is easier to keep a member than recruit a new member, especially if your Section leadership continues to respond to the members with events of interest. We are now at 295 SWFL Section members as of 3/3/13, including 33 members with dual section memberships. Our Section is continuing to grow but You are our most important recruiter. Your positive experience with the MBCA and the SWFL Section makes you our front line membership recruiter. Help us in 2013 to further expand our Section by each of you recruiting an additional member. Let s double our new member growth in Contact a neighbor or a friend to join MBCA. Please Update your Addresses! Since the club and our Section use electronic communications and we are now sending electronic newsletters, please let the NBO know of any changes to your address to ensure up to date information with both the NBO and your section Newsletter editor. changes to Renee@mbca.org or call March 8-10, 2013 The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Florida The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach PERFECTION You appreciate it in your automobile, that s why you drive a Mercedes-Benz. We strive for it with every trip or vacation we arrange for our clients. Whether a cruise, tour, airline ticket, hotel or car, we promise to provide the best service, value, and price for you, our valued client. TOUCAN TRAVEL Trips, Ships, Tickets, & Tours 2825 Tamiami Trail Suite B1 Punta Gorda, FL Tom & Loretta Starrett, Owners and proud members of the MBCA Southwest Florida Chapter!! Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

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9 Member Profile Tom and Anne Harruff of Naples President, and Secretary, Southwest Florida Section, Mercedes-Benz Club of America Before we talk about your love affair with Mercedes, can we share how you two met and your career, Tom? Anne had the locker next to me in high school in New Hartford, New York. We've been married 55 years. I had a 40-year career working for the Air Force as a civilian, mostly at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, retiring in 1996 as Director of Logistics for an organization that developed, acquired and fielded all new aircraft engines entering the Air Force inventory. I had started working as a warehouse helper, and it took me 13 years going to college nights to earn a Bachelor's degree in Management. I went on to complete my Master's degree in Logistics and an MBA in Finance. Take us back to your first time behind the wheel of a Mercedes. Anne and I spent the summer of 1983 in Germany as part of an executive development program for the Air Force. We purchased a future place in the production line for a new 1985 Mercedes 300D, and Anne selected the color, a beautiful light green metallic called "thistle green" with a dark green MB Tex interior. Since then, we've seen only a few of them with the thistle green exterior, but they all had tan interiors. At the Baltimore port where I picked up the car we had ordered almost two years earlier, it was late afternoon. The dash lights didn't come on as night fell, so I had no idea how fast I drove back to Dayton on the interstate. But I didn't get arrested. It just needed a replacement fuse, and neither of the two gas stations I pulled into that night carried German fuses. Learning to drive my first diesel was part of the Mercedes experience, because the power curve is different than a gas engine vehicle, and it was also my first Turbo. I liked the fact that it was a solid motor that runs forever. Anne loved the car right away, and we named her Diesel Dolly." She had 157,000 miles on it when I sold her 25 years later in 2010, to a young man who had grown up in Germany learning from his father how to repair Mercedes, BMWs, and Volkswagens. Between the two of you, what Mercedes have you owned over the years? Past a D, a SL, a SEL, currently Anne's smoke silver 1994 C280, which our grandson named "the jet car" because of the engine whine, and the silver "Big D" we call "Dallas," a SD. How did Ladies of Mercedes evolve in Southwest Florida? Previously, when we had summer meetings, sometimes Anne was the only lady there. So, she made it her goal to provide activities to attract women to the club without excluding the men. She plans to offer at least three Ladies of Mercedes events each year, and there's been a positive response, with 21 ladies attending the February Tea at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort in Naples and five gentlemen having lunch at the pool side cafe. The goal is to eventually add a charitable giving dimension to that event and to export Anne's concept of Tea at the Ritz nationwide to any Mercedes-Benz section with a Ritz Carlton in the area. Looking ahead, what intrigues you about the future of the Mercedes-Benz line-up? It's interesting that they are planning to introduce 30 new models over the next several years, with the CLA class priced below $30k, equipped with much of the technology found on more expensive models. Mercedes is attempting to build brand loyalty at a younger age, so drivers hopefully will remain with Mercedes-Benz as their income grows. Editor's note: This is the first of a regular newsletter feature profiling members of our section. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Stephanie Borden at (239) The Southwest Florida Section Sunshine Star newsletter is published on odd-numbered months. It is mailed electronically or via post to all members of the Section and appropriate members of other Sections and MBCA executives. All copy for inclusion should be received no later than the first of any even-numbered month. Any technical tips, automotive experiences or interesting items relating to Mercedes-Benz are encouraged and welcome. Members may advertise to buy or sell, free of charge, any personal Mercedes-Benz auto, part or accessory. All insertions in the Sunshine Star are the opinions and statements of the writers, advertisers, etc., and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this Section or MBCA. Call concerning commercial advertising rates. No authentication is given or implied as to the validity of any expressed opinion or statement. Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

10 THE SIEGE OF SOLOMON S CASTLE FEATURING: THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA SECTION OF THE MERCEDES-BENZ CLUB OF AMERICA WHAT: Rally, Tour of Solomon s Castle, and Lunch WHEN: SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2013 We will assemble our troops at 0900 (9:00 AM) for a 0930 (9:30 AM) departure. WHERE: We will be departing from the Cracker Barrel at Exit 141 off I-75 (Palm Beach Blvd. SR 80) and driving to the castle located NW of Arcadia at 4585 Solomon Road, Ona, Florida. Driving distance is 66 miles from the Cracker Barrel. Driving time is about 1.5 hours. There will be questions to be answered along the Rally route as you enjoy the non-interstate drive. A prize will be offered for the team with the most correct answers. Admission to the Castle is $10 per person, or $8 if we have 20 or more troops. They do not accept credit cards, so bring cash. The Boat in a Moat Restaurant is on site. The food is good, and most items are in the $7.95 to $10.95 price range. WEBSITE: For more details or to RSVP, please call Chet Young at (239) Classified: For Sale SL, 87,754 miles, original, absolutely immaculate. Records since new. 040 Black/Palomino tex (perfect). Needs nothing. Cockpit, top, and full covers, hardtop stand included. Offers over $17, or SWFL MBCA Member LAISVA, INC. LINAS MEILUTIS Owner Sliding Glass Doors Repair, Windows Repair, Maintenance Perfection. Serving Collier and Lee Counties Cell: LAISVALM@GMAIL.COM Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,

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12 Calendar of Upcoming Events of Interest to Our Members Southwest Florida Section, Mercedes-Benz Club of America DATE EVENT CONTACT Mar 8-10 Amelia Island Concours d Elegance Mar 9 SWFL Section Breakfast Meeting at Mimi s Café, Ft. Myers Mar 16 AACA Naples Depot Show AACA Naples-Marco Island Mar 23 SWFL Section Breakfast Meeting at Perkins Naples April 6 Annual SWFL Section Mercedes-Benz Car Show at M-B of Ft. Myers Apr 13 SWFL Section Breakfast Meeting at Mimi s Café, Ft. Myers Apr 27 SWFL Section Breakfast Meeting at Perkins Naples Apr 20 Rally and Tour of Solomon s Castle. Contact Chet Young May 11 SWFL Section Breakfast Meeting at Mimi s Café, Ft. Myers May StarTech Birmingham, AL Southwest Florida Section, Mercedes-Benz Club of America Annual Car Show for Mercedes-Benz Automobiles Classic (1988 and prior) and Special Interest (Newer) M-B Automobiles Show your favorite Mercedes at Mercedes-Benz of Fort Myers S. Tamiami Trail, Fort Myers, FL. Dealership phone number Saturday, April 6, :00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. - Lunch provided by Mercedes-Benz of Ft. Myers All Section Members and their guests are invited to join us at the show whether you are showing a car or not. This is a chance to meet other Section Members, see these Mercedes-Benz automobiles, and maybe meet someone with a Mercedes of the same model as yours. At last year s show we had 20 classic and special interest Mercedes automobiles on display. Come, support your club, meet some new friends, have fun, and join us for lunch. You might win a trophy! It will also give you an opportunity to meet the sales and service staff at Mercedes-Benz of Fort Myers and to see the latest new models in their showroom and on the lot. All registration fees shall be donated to charity (Salvation Army, American Red Cross, your choice) Trophies in Multiple Award Categories: Best Looking Mercedes Not Silver Best Looking Silver Mercedes Oldest Mercedes in the Show People s Choice Award Drove Furthest to get to the Show Highest Mileage on the Odometer Dealership Choice Award Registration: Southwest Florida Section, MBCA, Annual Car Show at Mercedes-Benz of Ft Myers Saturday, April 6, :00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. All show registration fees will go to charity; Salvation Army or American Red Cross, your choice. Name(s) of those attending: Contact address and phone number: Year(s) and Model(s) of Mercedes to be shown: Pre-Registration fee before $10.00 per car shown: Cars x $10.00 = Contact: Tom Harruff, Home , Cell , tharruff1813@comcast.net Registration checks to be made out to (Your Selected Charity) and mailed not later than April 1st, to: Tom Harruff, 1943 Empress Ct, Naples, FL, Sunshine STAR - Southwest Florida Section MBCA March - April,