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The weather forecast was dismal all week with four straight days of rain forecast, including show day on Saturday, April 26, 2025. However, this year’s Luft Wasser™ was a fundraiser for Hurricane Relief, so even if it rained all day, we were making an impact for an area ravaged by Hurricane Helene. |
The morning started with drizzle as the volunteer teams left home for Brevard, but by showtime it was bright, sunny and one of the best show days one could imagine.
The change in weather was a perfect metaphor to describe the fundraising efforts. We started with the idea of: Can we shift this Luft Wasser™ Porsche Celebration to a Hurricane Relief Fundraiser?
The Region’s goal was to raise $12,000 for the community. However, when Appalachian Region members Rob and Stacey Trollinger heard about the goal they wanted to spur on donations and made a commitment to match all funds donated to MANNA FoodBank in connection with the Luft Wasser™ event.
This decision and commitment proved to be the driving force that led to the Luft Wasser™ Porsche Celebration in Brevard raising over $75,000 for Western North Carolina (WNC) Hurricane Relief efforts. The money is helping to feed WNC, educate the children and support small business.
Monies raised and contributed are helping to support MANNA FoodBank, The Cindy Platt Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County and the Transylvania County Small Business Hurricane Relief Fund.
The sun was shining bright for the cars and the community.
Thank you to everyone who gave, both through the show and with extra donations, and to the Trollinger’s who had the foresight to say, “If we match funds, will that increase overall donations?” The answer was a resounding Yes!
The History of the Luft Wasser™ Porsche Celebration
This is the eighth year for the Luft Wasser™ Porsche Celebration in Brevard. The event started with the idea to drive the mountain roads of Transylvania County with a tour through the county to Brevard so participants could then enjoy the restaurants and shopping of Brevard.
Transylvania County Tourism liked the idea of introducing the county and city to a new audience from across the southeast and offered to close a section of Main Street for a downtown takeover of Brevard.
The Appalachian Region of the Porsche Club of America (PCA) seized the opportunity and turned the event into a celebration that has grown from 50 Porsches to now over 200 Porsches coming together. As the event grew and the City of Brevard saw the impact on local business and tourism we moved from a side street to Main Street to Broad Street, the major thoroughfare through Brevard.
What does Luft Wasser™ Mean?
Luft is air in German and Wasser is water in German. The history of Porsche is there is an air-cooled engine era of Porsche from its beginnings in 1948 through the last air-cooled Porsche in 1998. In 1999, Porsche engines switched to water-cooled engines which was a major inflection point in the history of Porsche.
It also created an “unofficial divide” in the Porsche community. You were either an air-cooled Porsche driver or a water-cooled Porsche driver and often the two didn’t meet.
The idea behind Luft Wasser™ was to bring the two groups together with a Porsche Celebration of driving, showing and socializing around Porsche, and we would call it Luft (air) Wasser (water) to signify that all were welcome.
The 2025 Luft Wasser™ Back Story
The previous year’s concept for the Luft Wasser™ day was always: drive, show, eat, but this year we were facing an area ravaged by Hurricane Helene and still recovering.
Would it be right to have lines of expensive Porsches traveling down roads and through communities still recovering? And, the Blue Ridge Parkway between Asheville and Brevard is still not open as landslides continue in the area with the Parkway washed away in many areas with the tunnels closed.
It was decided this year to forego the driving tours in order to respect the tremendous destruction in the area and the hardships that many are still experiencing. The visual of Porsches roaring down the roads was just not appropriate at this time.
A key element of Luft Wasser™ is driving, so how do we compensate for the loss of this activity?
Discussions ensued between organizer Jim Moore, Linda Moore and Deputy Chair Dave White. The idea surfaced to have everyone travel to Brevard on their own, but once they arrived, we would group the Porsches by models so all Caymans were together, 911’s, etc. This would provide a unique perspective for visitors and participants to compare and contrast the different models, generations and colors.
Linda then brought the non-car side to the picture saying you need to make the focus be Hurricane Relief from a theme and a fundraising effort. The day was set: Luft Wasser™; a Helene Recovery Fundraiser.
A concept only works if it is executed properly. It was a two-stage effort of designing the show and creating a fundraising effort.
Jim Moore may chair Luft Wasser™, but not many know that the only way it works is because of Dave White and Charlie Hickey determining how to stage the show field by bringing over 200 Porsches to Broad Street in less than an hour. Scott Walker’s accurate CAD drawing maps out the field for them, but it still requires the team to walk the field multiple times, double check the CAD and chalk the parking places for show day.
The Public Service Committee and Board had already determined that all 2025 fundraising efforts in 2025 would be directed towards our primary charity partner, MANNA FoodBank so Organizer Moore initiated efforts for fundraising.
Our Heart of Brevard sponsor, led by Nicole Bentley asked if we would also support their small business hurricane relief fund. How can we say no when the City of Brevard and the Brevard business community provides such great support opening the city to us.
When the 2025 Luft Wasser™ concept was announced to support Hurricane Relief, Appalachian Region members, Stacey and Rob Trollinger reached out to Organizer Moore with the idea of “would offering a matching fund to donations from participants increase the overall contributions?” This was the missing piece to really make 2025 a special event. A hurricane relief fundraising effort that had all funds contributed to be matched 1:1; doubling the giving.
The 2025 Luft Wasser™ Day
The team sets the show field on Friday afternoon before the event measuring and chalking the street for parking so as cars arrive, they just have a mark to hit so we know the 194 cars on the street will fit in the space allotted. (The remaining 37 Porsches were in the adjacent parking lots as displays.)
It is a great plan, but as a farmer says: “When it rains, we let it rain.” Well, it rained hard overnight and all the pre-staging chalking washed away. Charlie and Dave had to start all over at six in the morning to be prepared for the start of a 200-Porsche arrival in two hours.
The volunteer teams started to arrive at seven, with Tom Paligraf and MaryLou Miller setting up at the High School in preparation for registering 125 cars and their drivers and passengers in order to stage them for the parades to the show field. Don and Lee Therien arrived at the same time. Don started to prepare the air-cooled Porsche area while Lee started registration of volunteers and early arrivers at the Broad Street location.
New for 2025 was the addition of special displays so captains were assigned to each display to organize and stage:
- 356 Display was curated by Michael Branning and sponsored by the 356 Registry
- 930 Turbo display featured four 930 Turbo “Widowmakers” and was organized by Troy and Paula Benesch
- The Evolution of Porsches display was curated by Jim Moore and organized by Haf and Don Zink
The show field was a series of mini-displays as it was grouped by Porsche model so all Caymans, Boxsters, Air-Cooled Porsches, Transaxle Porsches, etc. were together. A spectator could compare and contrast the various generations and enjoy the color spectrums of models of Porsches. The organization to make this happen compounded the pre-planning, but based on reactions of visitors, it was worth it.
Also new for 2025 was the Hospitality area chaired by Rod Trzcinski. We moved the sponsors off the street to a new area that was laid out for easy access and providing a festive atmosphere. The new location in the middle of the show made it easy for all to access and enjoy.
Our City of Brevard liaison, Karl Klepfer activated the Brevard business community this year with efforts by OP Taylors toy store, Quixote restaurant and Rocky’s restaurant. OP Taylors had a Lego car building for the kids and a MANNA fundraising slot car racing effort to see who was the fastest. It was 10 laps for a $10 donation to MANNA with a chance to win a Porsche crystal trophy donated by Appalachian Members and Brevard Residents John Koury and Christy Blackley, owners of the Cedar Mountain Outpost, one of our favorite comfort stops on our driving tours.
New this year was a Junior Judging Program initiated through a program that PCA has with Hagerty Insurance. Paul Kaperonis from Hagerty Insurance partner, the Larry Helms Agency, led the program introducing eight kids from The Cindy Platt Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County to the finer details of judging cars. Their focus was in the Evolution of Porsches display.
They were discerning judges to recognize and award the top prize to the uniqueness of Phil Trunnell’s 1992 all-original Black on black Porsche 911 Carrera RS. This model was originally only available in Europe as a lightweight, driving-focused 911. This was a late-entry from Phil but we were happy to accept such a special car.
The Party’s Over
The permits and agreement with the City of Brevard and the NC Department of Transportation is that we will be off the streets by 2:00 p.m. so normal traffic operations can continue into and through the city. The day was so beautiful, the cars were so plentiful and everyone was enjoying themselves so much that at 1:30 p.m. almost half the cars were still on the street. Organizers Jim and Dave weren’t sure what to do, when like the sun breaking through the clouds, our Luft Wasser™ guests knew it was time to go. The last car to leave was an air-cooled Porsche departing at 1:59 p.m. Whew!
Fundraising for Hurricane Relief was the real Focus this Year
The registration fees provided donations to MANNA FoodBank and the Transylvania County Small Business Hurricane Relief Fund.
In addition, many attendees provided extra donations driven by the matching fund that doubled their donation to MANNA. Thank you to Appalachian Region members, Rob and Stacey Trollinger for their generous Appalachian agreement to match donations to MANNA.
The regular recipient of Luft Wasser™ fundraising is The Cindy Platt Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County so the Trollinger’s decided to make up the shortfall the Boys & Girls would be experiencing since the education and development of youth is so important to the area’s future.
Registration fees and the extra donations for MANNA FoodBank totaled $27,111 which is commendable in its own right. Adding the matching funds from the Trollinger’s of $35,000, and the total contributions for MANNA FoodBank from Appalachian Region and the nine regions who participated totaled $62,111. This equates to 248,444 meals to help feed Western North Carolina.
Another $2,035 was raised for the Transylvania County Small Business Hurricane Relief fund from attendee donations.
And then you add in the extra donation to The Cindy Platt Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County and…
Total fundraising this year was $79,146
Appalachian Region MANNA Chair, David Butler summed the event up well: “Luft Wasser™ is such a gift to the (Appalachian) Region and the multiple charitable organizations impacted.”
Enjoy photos from the day with this Photo Slideshow from Dick Maybach.
Luft Wasser™ Couldn’t Happen Without our Great Volunteers
A key strength of Appalachian Region beyond the tremendous generosity is our base of committed volunteers that help to make us one the Best PCA Regions in the Country.
Here is a hat tip to the 56 volunteers who help to make Luft Wasser™ such a success.
Chair: Jim Moore
Deputy Chair: Dave White
Broad Street Staging
- Charlie Hickey - Lead
- Dave White – Lead
- Don Therien – Air-Cooled Lead
- George Cain
- Jay Carlisle
- Carole Carter
- Gene Carter
- Joe Esposito
- Mark Feightner
- John Goetzman
- Karl Lail
- Kim LaRowe
- Dick Maybach
- Doug Menchhofer
- Nort Northam
- Chris Onulak
- Carl von Schummer
- Scott Walker
Broad Street Registration
- Amy Feightner
- Isabel Menchhofer
- Lee Therien
Hospitality Area
- Rod Trzcinski – Overall led for Hospitality Area
- Cindy Cain - Lead on Appalachian Region Hospitality
- Karl Klepfer – City of Brevard Liaison
- Gale Dazzo
- Gay Pluene
- Lee Therien
Fundraising Leads
- Rob Trollinger
- Stacey Trollinger
- David Butler
- Jim Moore
High School Registration and Parade Staging
- MaryLou Miller - Lead
- Tom Paligraf – Lead
- Charlie Giudici
- Jane Giudici
- Rick Steele
- David Steinman
- Janna Steinman
- Jim Symington
- Eric Weinstein
- Eve Weinstein
Parade Leads, Sweeps and Rockers
- Dan Dazzo
- Bob Disney
- Larry Koupal
- Phil Leftwich
- Don Lowcavage
- Mike McLain
- Scott Pluene
- Bill Price
- Doug Scheer
- Yohan Sookdeo
- Gordon Taylor
- Don Zelm
Special Displays
- Paula Benesch – 930 Turbos
- Troy Benesch – 930 Turbos
- Michael Branning – 356 Display
- Don Zink – Evolution of Porsches
- Haf Zink – Evolution of Porsches
Thank you to the 57 Volunteers who make Luft Wasser™ possible.
Next Year: Luft Wasser™ is traditionally held the last Saturday of April so hold the 2026 date of April 25, 2026 open on your calendar. Registration will open on March 15, 2026.
Jim Moore – Appalach;ian Region President