SPRING NEWSLETTER & CALENDAR OF EVENTS

April 14, 2008

Greetings Fellow Viper Owners ~

I hope the spring weather these last couple of days has you all in the mood for getting your Viper out for a cruise. I haven’t had mine out yet due to the poor road conditions here in Tioga County. Hopefully, the cinders left over from the last storm will be cleaned off the highway soon.

Ginger and I attended the annual “VCA President’s Meeting” which was held this year in Scottsdale AZ on Friday morning, January 18^th. We also enjoyed a trip to the Russo and Steele Auction on Friday afternoon, a day at the Barrett-Jackson Auction, and lunch on the BJ premises with the Arizona club on Saturday. Other members of the PA-WV club in attendance were Al and Trudy Berman. Our good friends Larry and Sharon McCourry from the VA-MD club joined us as well. Saturday’s luncheon was great and the remainder of the day at the BJ Auction was awesome. We watched as our VCA National Officers escorted the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 to the stage for auctioning. The hammer price was $400,000.00. All Proceeds from Dodge Challenger No. 1 benefited notMYkid - an organization dedicated to facilitating improved understanding about youth behavioral health issues including suicide, drug abuse, eating disorders and depression.

Our “After the Holidays” party was held on Saturday, February 9^th, at the Harrisburg PA home of our club Vice President, Carmen Gullage, and his wife Vanessa. Our winter meeting and discussion was held following dinner. Door prizes were awarded to several lucky members. Thanks to Carmen and Vanessa for hosting this fun event.

The VCA encourages regional clubs to participate in a charity of some type. Therefore, we have adopted the “Children’s Miracle Network” as our club charity. Children's Miracle Network is the alliance of premier children's hospitals. Every year, Children's Miracle Network hospitals treat 17 million children for every disease and injury imaginable. Children's Miracle Network hospitals impact the lives of more children than any other children's organization in the world. Children's hospitals provide state-of-the-art care, life-saving research and preventative education for children 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is a Children's Miracle Network hospital dedicated to serving children in every community across the United States and Canada. These hospitals are committed to providing the best care for children when they need it. There are 170 children's hospitals affiliated with Children's Miracle Network. These hospitals help children of all races, ages, religions, ailments, and financial backgrounds. Our support of Children's Miracle Network will help ensure that children have the specialized care they need and deserve. We will have 50-50 raffles and benefits to support this powerful organization at several of our functions throughout the year. It is my hope that you will support the cause!

In case you may have missed it, the 2007 Carlisle event got a 2-page spread in the Spring 2008 edition of VIPER Magazine. Check it out on Pages 36 & 37.

As I was reading through the spring VIPER Magazine, I came across some other photos that looked familiar to me. I thought, “I’ve seen that garage and that car looks familiar.” Sure enough, it’s the “Viper Shrine” of former PA-WV Club President, Mike Shveda. If you missed it, check it out on page 58. I’ve seen that garage and it is truly just what Mike describes…a shrine! However, I don’t see Mike’s signed ’95 Carroll Shelby Viper often enough! Thanks for submitting your article to VIPER Magazine Mike!

The Member/Officer of the Year Awards are upon us again. This program was established by the VCA to help recognize some of the outstanding talent in the Zones and Regions of the VCA. If you have an interest in nominating someone from the PA-WV Club for one of these awards, please send a letter of recommendation to Ginger via e-mail, or to the address shown on the end of this newsletter by July 1.

\

Several new Viper owners have joined the list of PA-WV club members. On behalf of this club, as well as the VCA, I would like to welcome you! Congratulations to those of you who have taken delivery of a new ’08 Viper. I know we have a few amongst the club. It will be great to see a few of the new models at some of our events this year.

We still have a few club shirts available. Additional info is at the bottom of the PA-WV website http://wvpa.viperclub.org .

We have several fun events already set up for this year, and many more in planning stages. Following is a list of items already on the calendar of events. At the January meeting several members expressed an interest in attending some car shows in their area. We have therefore listed several that we were made aware of.

APRIL 26 ~ Covered Bridge Cruise, Lancaster PA Area – Just this past weekend club member Lauri Virkkunen (Lancaster PA) put together this cruise. Please see the enclosed separate sheet for meeting time and place for this cruise.

Some members were concerned that their Viper would not clear the approach to the bridges, but Lauri reports, “if I clear the bridges, none of you have anything to worry about. Only thing to worry about are the Amish road apples (Horse poop), my spoiler doesn’t clear those.”

APRIL 27 ~ Manor FFA 2^nd Annual Car Show, Millersville PA (rain date May 11). The Viper club has been invited to this show by the Manor FFA at Penn Manor High School, Millersville, PA. Proceeds benefit a family who lost everything in a fire that destroyed their home. Location ~ Comet Field, which is located of off Route 741, just south of the Route 999 intersection. Registration is from 9 to 11 AM. The show runs until 3 PM. No pre-registration required, and registration is by donation. For more info contact Miss Spangler, at 717-872-9520 ext. 1592. If no answer leave a msg.

MAY 17 & 18 ~ 22nd Annual Mopar Weekend at Englishtown NJ - check www.racewaypark.com for more info.

MAY 18 ~ Tator’s Dodge “Tatortoga” – Saratoga Automobile Museum (Saratoga Springs NY). Brock Yates and Carroll Shelby will be special guests! For additional info contact tatorsdodge@msn.com or skgnyc@aol.com

MAY 24-26 ~ Pocono CSD & Zone Rendezvous – This year’s Pocono CSD (A CELEBRATION OF SPEED & DESIGN) will be in conjunction with a Northeast Zone Rendezvous. On April 10^th, I received an e-mail from NJ Club President and event coordination Bobby Cerchione with an update on this event. He stated, “we only had 7 cars signed up as of last night (April 9^th). Please, pump up your membership, so we can dominate this event with our snakes. Ferrari had 17 cars, Maserati had 9 cars, Corvette had 12 cars and even Lamborghini had 7 cars. The Zone is Back folks! Let’s make it a good one!” So if you haven’t already preregistered, please do so ASAP. Although I don’t track my Viper, Ginger and I will be in attendance to partake of these festivities. Complete information and registration materials regarding this event was e-mailed to our members on March 14^th. If you need additional info, go to www.pocono-csd.com or contact bobbycapex@aol.com or troeller@rolstar.com .

JUNE 14 ~ VA/MD Club Crab Feast – Per an e-mail I received from Lee Stubberfield, President of the VA/MD Club: “Last year there were approximately 60-70 cars and over 120 attendees. There will be three primary cruise meeting points, north of Baltimore just off 95, Northern VA, the eastern Shore for those who choose to come down that way through Delaware and the final assembly point in Annapolis. Once all cars arrive in Annapolis from the initial staging points we head over the Bay Bridge together. We pretty much take over The Crab Deck on the eastern shore.”

Check www.vamdviperclub.org in May for registration information.

JUNE 21 ~ Susquehanna River/Exelon Cruise – Club members Dave & Betty Kavanagh (Ridley Park PA) and Al & Trudy Berman (Chester Heights PA) have organized this cruise. Per an e-mail from Dave: “About 80% of the run is on back country roads. We are planning a detailed 'run' with directions/map/history package with a few 'stop and gather' spots on the way with views, parking and photo-ops. Our travels will take us on roads in the states of PA & MD which will include Delaware, Chester, Lancaster and York counties in PA and Harford County in MD. This amounts to approx. 125 miles with four stops, including lunch. The four 'Stops' would be the Exelon Muddy Run Generating Plant on the Susquehanna River, Exelon Muddy Run Recreational Area), Exelon Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station on the Susquehanna River and finally the Exelon Conowingo Dam Generating Station. The stop at the Exelon Muddy Run Recreation Center will include lunch. The final run from Conowingo to the HI Express is about 80% 4-lane highway. Dinner on Saturday evening will be at the home of Trudy and Al Berman which is just a short run from the HI Express.”

Event contacts: Dave Kavanagh (610-496-0768) or Al Berman (610-637-0305)

Meet at the Holiday Inn Express (address on following page). We will leave the parking lot promptly at 9:30 AM.

A block of rooms has been reserved for Fri & Sat (June 20 & 21) at the Holiday Inn Express, 1100 Baltimore Pike (Route 1), Glen Mills, PA 19342 (intersection of PA Routes 1 and 202). Call the hotel (610-358-1700) by May 20th to reserve your room. Be sure to give the desk clerk the group code for the club room reservations which is PAV. There will be reserved Viper parking and on-site parking security. Continental breakfast is included in the room rates below.

1 King or 2 Doubles ($119.00 + tax per night)

Queen Suite ($134.00 + tax per night)

King Suite ($209.00 + tax per night)

There will be a $50 per car fee for this event which will cover the cost of lunch and dinner. Please let Ginger (gingerk@ptd.net or 607-426-0837) know by June 19th if you will be attending!

JUNE 27 ~ Viper Play Day at BeaveRun Road Course - The Viper Club of Ohio is extending an invitation for fellow Viper owners to attend this event held in Big Beaver PA at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex (www.beaverun.com) Event contact: John Wojnar jw97viper@yahoo.com or 330-351-3515 (C) or 330-494-8780 (H).

JULY 11-13 ~ Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals - Pre-register now for “Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals”. The dates for this event are July 11-13. The Vipers are scheduled to slither in on Saturday, July 12^th. Visit the Carlisle Events home page, www.carsatcarlisle.com , to either complete the form on-line, or, print it off and mail it in to complete your pre-registration. When pre-registering please be sure to indicate that you are a member of the VIPER CLUB OF AMERICA. The number of pre-registered Vipers determines the number of spaces the Viper Club is allotted on the show field, it helps us establish a preliminary headcount for lunch and also helps determine how we fare in the club competition. Beginning this year, Carlisle Events has implemented a new policy regarding the club tents. In order to qualify for the 20 x 30 tent, which we need to accommodate the lunch crowd, we must have 50 vehicles pre-registered prior to June 24. It would be great to have 75 vehicles pre-registered by that date to obtain a 20 x 40 tent!!! So please, don’t delay, pre-register today! We had 54 Vipers from 8 different states on the show field last year. We took second place in the Club Challenge Award. We have a ways to go to take over the first place spot. It was won last year by the Hemi Owners Group with 102 vehicles registered. Let’s see if we can top that number and move up the ladder in the competition! We’re hoping that moving this event away from the July 4^th holiday will help us gain even more Vipers this year. We welcome members of any Viper Club to join us under the Viper tent in Carlisle on July 12th. As a matter of fact, I received an e-mail from a member of the Kansas City Viper Club who has already preregistered to attend this event. He read about it in the Spring VIPER Magazine.

AUGUST 8-10 ~ 5^TH Annual Rod & Custom Cruise-In - Bloomsburg Fair Grounds, Bloomsburg PA - Car show open to all makes, models and years. This show is supported by the Bloomsburg Hospital. Additional info can be found on the following web site: www.rodandcustomcruisein.com

AUGUST 8-10 ~ Mopar Nationals – Columbus OH – Event contact: John Wojnar jw97viper@yahoo.com or 330-351-3515 (C) or 330-494-8780 (H).

AUGUST 14 ~ New Jersey Club Track Day @ Pocono Raceway, Pocono PA - Event contact: bobbycapex@aol.com

AUGUST 24 ~ Nuremberg PA Auto Show – Nuremberg Community Park - Club member Joe Harvey (Nuremberg PA, just south of Hazleton) organizes this annual car show which benefits the American Cancer Society.  Registration, which is a $10 donation, runs from 9 AM – Noon. Show ends approximately 4 PM. Joe reports, “there are, cars, motorcycles and nice door prizes, along with food, music, fun and nice scenery.” For more info contact: Joe Harvey @ josephh@pa.metrocast.net

AUGUST 27-31 ~ VOI 10 - Detroit MI – The 10th Dodge Viper Owners Invitational - This is one party that a Viper owner does not want to miss! Information regarding this event can be found at www.voi10.com. We will have special VOI 10/PA-WV Club gifts for those attending, so after your reservations have been made, be sure to let Ginger (gingerk@ptd.net or 607-426-0837) know that you will be attending.

SEPTEMBER 20 ~ Let’s Roll Cruise – Shanksville PA - Again this year we will cruise along with the NJ Viper Club to the site of the crash of Flight 93. Last year we had a total of ten Vipers and two additional vehicles representing the PA-WV club for this cruise. Mark your calendar to join us for this very rewarding event. It is a day you will certainly remember! More info on this event in a future newsletter.

OCTOBER 11 ~ PA Grand Canyon Cruise - This is the fourth year for this event. At our winter meeting we mentioned maybe not doing this cruise this year. However, those at the meeting that have attended in previous years want to do it again this year! Their comment was, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!” So, Ginger and I are making the plans again. Our headquarters will be at The Hampton Inn just off Rt. 15 in Williamsport again this year. The "after the cruise party" will be in the Susquehanna Room at The Hampton Inn. There is a Perkin’s and Wegman’s right next door to the hotel. As in past years, we have hired an off duty prison guard to watch over the Vipers through the night. There are 10 rooms blocked for Fri and Sat (Oct. 10 & 11). Hotel info is as follows:

The Hampton Inn, 140 Via Bella, Williamsport 17701

www.hampton-inn.com/hi/williamsport

Phone: 1-800-HAMPTON or their local number is 570-323-6190

Group Code - VPB

2 Queen Bed or 1 King Bed Room, - $125.00 (non-smoking)

We share this date with Homecoming @ Lycoming College as well as Parent’s Weekend @ Penn College, both in Williamsport. Therefore the cut-off date for the special room rate is Sept 8. Rooms will be hard to come by in Williamsport so reserve your room early to avoid being disappointed.

Any updated information regarding this event will be addressed in future newsletters.

Interest was also expressed for a Clearfield PA area cruise along I-80, as well as many more. There were no confirmed dates for any other events at press time. Watch your e-mail for updates.

That’s it for now! Ginger and I hope to see you at some of the events that have been planned for the club. As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions for events, or questions regarding any of the activities mentioned, please contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

In closing, please drive safely as you enjoy the spring weather.

Happy Vipering,

Denny

Notes from your Club Secretary – Treasurer

E-MAIL ADDRESSES – Be advised that I may occasionally e-mail information to our members pertaining to club events, etc. I will use the e-mail address that you provided to VCA Headquarters on your renewal form/application. Please check the label on the front page of this newsletter. If the e-mail address shown is not correct, kindly advise me of your correct e-mail address. Remember to update me of any new e-mail addresses.

MEMBERSHIP - There are still some members that have not paid their dues for 2008. Your name highlighted in yellow on the label on the front page of this newsletter is an indication that as of 4/14/08, your dues have not been received by VCA Headquarters. Dues payment questions should be directed to Kim (kvogt@jrthompson.com) at Viper Headquarters.

Thanks,

Ginger (gingerk@ptd.net)

PO BOX 32, 51 SKYLINE DRIVE, MANSFIELD PA 16933 570-662-3103 e-mail: vipergts@ptd.net

Join the PA-WV Viper Club on a Scenic Amish Country Covered Bridge Cruise

This will be a slow paced, approximately 60 mile drive through the heart of Amish Countryside, filled with horse driven black buggies.  This time of the year you’ll be able to see lots of mules and Amish working on fields.

We will start at the SONIC Drive In, located on RT 222 Brownstown, PA (Brownstown is about 3 miles south of Ephrata) on April 26^th at 10AM. There is a Sheetz gas station across the road for anyone in need of gas. Drive starts at the north side of Lancaster County, moving to west towards Columbia. From Columbia we will drive south along the Susquehanna River and will turn east again towards Strasburg. From Strasburg east to Paradise, North to Intercourse and Bird in Hand. (I bet you thought your town had funny names…) The cruise will cross 10-11 bridges, some cross small creeks and few of them are quite large. We will stop at Intercourse to eat, Amish style.

After the lunch, we’ll continue north towards our starting point Brownstown. At Brownstown we’ll cross 3 most scenic bridges in this area. Cruise, including the lunch will take about 4 hours. Once we have crossed the last covered bridge, we will gather at our house (Lauri’s house - see address at bottom) for refreshments (I don’t think anyone will be hungry after the Amish style meal…)

Note:

- Since the drive will cover winding country side roads, your car may end up a bit dustier than usually. Mules pulling farm equipment frequently cross the roads.

- There will be quite a few horse driven buggies on the road, pass them SLOWLY, our cars can spook the horses easily. Occasional “road apples” can be found (horse poop).

- Do not pack 5 cars on the bridge at one time…some of them have a low weight limitation (4-5tons).

Want to stay longer???

- Lancaster County has some of the best shopping, Rockvale & Tanger Outlets offer Ralph Lauren, Mikasa, Bose, Le Gourmet Chef…

- Take a ride in a Steam Locomotive in Strasburg.

- Wanna’ know how 1 (one) horse power feels like, take an Amish Buggy ride.

- Interested in seeing an Amish house and farm? We have several.

- There will be also plentiful of Amish road stands, with baked foods, homemade root beer, jams, jellies, pickled veggies and handmade wooden goods. Several of them are “honor stands”, meaning that you pick what you want and pay into a coffee can. Stands are open Saturday, but NOT on Sundays.

- Antiques? At Stoudtburg you’ll have 78.000sft and 400 dealers… and Stoudts micro brewery

- Wave at the Amish, even if they prefer black buggies and horses, they do like Vipers. Don’t believe it? Just try!

Links:

Rockvale Outlets: http://www.rockvalesquareoutlets.com/

Tanger outlets: http://www.tangeroutlet.com/lancaster

Steam Locomotive rides: http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

1 (one) HP rides: http://www.amishbuggyrides.com/

Amish House: http://www.amishfarmandhouse.com/

Antiques: http://www.padutchcountry.com/member_pages/Stoudtburg_Antique_Mall.asp

Hotel Info: (Use Viper Club name to get a discount at either hotel.)

Holiday Inn Express Lancaster-Lititz, 101 Crosswinds Dr., Lititz PA 17543 – www.hiexpress.com – 717-625-2366

Warwick Inn & Suites, 613 Furnace Hills Pike (RT501 1 mile north of Lititz), Lititz PA 17543 - www.warwickinnpa.com – 717-627-7500

We would like to get a head/car count so that we can make reservations for the restaurant. It is not a fancy place, like said, very Amish... Long tables and buffet style.

Please let Ginger know by April 24th if you will be attending!

Event Organizer: Contact:

Lauri (RedEnuf93) Virkkunen (lvirkkunen@comcast.net) Ginger Kurzejewski

570-604-1974 gingerk@ptd.net

2502 Butter Road, Lancaster PA 17601 607-426-0837