Wishes Do Come True

Article by Mike La
Photography by Ling Ly
Videography by Silly Crew

Irvine, CA -- March 8, 2008 marked the very first anniversary of the illest automotive site ever, myMBonline.com. To celebrate their anniversary, myMBonline.com shut down the city of Irvine to host their very first charity event at Tia Juana’s Long Bar and Grill to raise money for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

With excitement running at high levels, vendors and manufacturers came out in droves to show their support for this wonderful cause. For those who may not be too familiar with the Make-A-Wish foundation, this non-profit organization granted their first wish to Christopher Greicius. The 7-year old boy, at the time, had dreams of becoming a police officer. Sadly, Chris's future looked gloom as he was diagnosed with Leukemia. With the support of local authorities and the Make-A-Wish foundation, Chris was dressed in a custom made Police Uniform and was strengthened by the joy of having his wish come true. Unfortunately, Chris passed away shortly after but not before Make-A-Wish granted his wish.

On this day, Mercedes-Benz owners from far and wide including members from the myMBonline.com and MBWorld.org communities, came together to help grant another child his wish. The wish of this particular 4-year old boy diagnosed with leukemia is to restore an old airplane.

Vendors and supporters made their way from all across the United States to The O.C. With them, they brought some of the finest products in the automotive industry to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation Silent Auction. The guys from Group 5 Motorsport brought three immaculate Benz’s including Ling’s C55, Mike’s S55, and their latest creation, the Lorinser CL550. Besides giving the crowd a chance to view the beautiful white CL up close (featured here), Group 5 also handed out goodie bags. SMART Center of West Covina and Penske Motor Group brought out a stunning white CLK Black Series in addition to two SMART cars. Renntech, based out of Florida, displayed their race prepped silver CLK Black Series which sat proudly on an immaculate set of HRE Competition wheels. The crew from HMS brought an entire arsenal of eye candy including Vic's loud revving BMW M6, Jon's show winning white CLS63, and Chris Pham's newly kitted up W124 to name a few.

Neal of Euroteck Motorsports made a special cross country trip from Florida to attend and display his upcoming new products at this historic event. In addition to making the special guest appearance, Euroteck also contributed a Mercedes-Benz E55 Carbon Fiber lip ($649 MSRP) as their generous donation towards the silent auction. To round off their impressive display of products and cars, Euroteck also enlisted the services of models Mercedes Terrell and Mary Riley as their assistants for the day giving the enthusiasts in attendance an added attraction.

Also in attendance were the following vendors and their respective representatives: Ken Rudy from Renntech, Vadim Fedorovsky of VRP Performance Tuning, and Gary Cogis of Race Technologies (distributor of Brembo Brake Systems in North America). Each of the companies they represented contributed generous donations towards the silent auction and raffle. Renntech donated their new v2.0 Electronic Lowering Module ($1,495 MSRP), VRP donated a carbon fiber engine cover ($750 MSRP), and Race Technologies donated five gift bags filled with goodies for raffle giveaway.

Generous donations were contributed from other vendors that included a set of Falken 452 tires from Justin Lim at Falken Tire Corporation, an Ipod Integration Kit and Blueooth Phone kit from Steve and Wanda at www.MBenzNL.com, four HID kits from Ed at Harbor Motorsports, an HID kit and discount vouchers from Tom at K1 Motorsport.

A special thanks goes out to Cal National Bank and the generous folks in attendance who donated to Make-A-Wish. By the end of the day, myMBonline.com raised over $3,900 (not including Tia Juana's restaurant donation) towards making this special little boy's wish come true.

MC Roger D. Beezie concluded the festivities with the help of the Silly Crew of Silly Entertainment by announcing five selected winners of the myMBonline.com sponsored car show. The winners of each category are as follows. Vic55 won Best In Show for the BMW class. OCKlasse won Best All-Around Pre-2000 Non-AMG, RARFinancial won Best All-Around AMG 2003-2008, FrankW won Best All-Around Pre-2003 AMG, and JP/Mig888 won Best All-Around Non-AMG 2000-2008. Congratulations to all!

Besides having awesome cars, the myMBonline.com members have even more spectacular hearts. The story of this group can be found here.

For more information regarding upcoming myMBonline.com events, be sure to check out our calendar of upcoming events. Polish up the paint and replace those worn rear tires, because there sure are a ton of events these upcoming months! Cheers!

Thank You's

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who came out to support the event and contributed towards a great cause!

Angela: Thank you for taking care of the logistics, agenda, and everything else associated with making the city officials and charity happy. E55 SLR FTW!

Mikey: Thank you for dealing with the craziness throughout the day with parking, the car contest, and contacting some of the sponsors in getting them on board.

Mark Cummins: Thank you for the guidance and advice on what was required to have this event happen smoothly. We will definitely have to get together with some of the others to form some type of event committee to make the next event that much better.

Roger: Mr. MC, thanks for stepping up to the stage and being the voice of the event for the others that are public speaking challenged.

Shelle: Thank you for your help throughout the day and for taking care of the car contest in getting everything ironed out after having to improvise.

Mike and Yuri: Thanks for helping with everything from parking, setup, and breakdown.

Roupin: Thanks for the help with planning the agenda and games along with donating some of the prizes.

Jimmy: Thanks for the help with setup and mounting the banner. Much appreciated!

James and Ken: Thanks for helping with parking, setup, and breakdown. Of course, special thanks to James for babysitting all day. ;)

Tony: Thanks for your assistance with rounding up the R129 SL group and the coordination of parking for the group.

Sorry if anyone was missed but this event sure as heck would not have happened without everyone's assistance!

Thank You to the Vendors

Slim, Tu, Twyst, and the rest of the guys from Silly: For the tunes and entertainment throughout the day.

Neal at Euroteck: For making the long journey from Florida, the goods for silent auction, and providing the $200 jeans. [If she would have listened to what you told her to begin with then it wouldn't have happened!! =D]

Troy at Group5: For coming out and supporting the event. In addition, thanks for the help with contacting and obtaining commitments from the other vendors such as Brembo and Falken with such short notice. Hopefully with much more notice and no conflicts with other events, we'll have ALL of the vendors you contacted show up.

Verone at Penske: Thanks for running away from your pancakes at Denny's and going well out of your way to flatbed the CLK Black Series and the SMART cars to the event. The BS was a nice sup rise for everyone including Mikey who got a chance to go for a ride. Hope the filming with Craig later on in the day went well.

Gary Cogis at Race Technologies (aka Brembo NA): Thank you for attending the event and for the five gift bags that were donated for raffle. Lucky you, escaped before being called to the stage. Hope to see you at a future event.

Justin Lim at Falken Tires: For donating the set of Falken 452 tires for the silent auction. Wish you could have made it out but there is always next time!

Tom at K1: For your donation of the goodies going towards a good cause.

Ed and the guys at HMS: For the donation of the HID kits and displaying some awesome cars.

Vadim and Victor at VRP: Thanks for coming out to the event with the V12TT beast and donating the CF engine cover.

Steve and Wanda at MBenzNL: For donating the Bluetooth Phone kit and iPod Integration Kit. Wish you both could have attended but everyone knows Steve is a busy man and always on travel.

Ken at Renntech: For donating the ELM and bringing their race prepped CLK BS out to the event. Thanks for taking the time to attend the event.

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