The Atlanta chapter’s Annual Black & White Scholarship Ball was founded in 2003 by Atlanta Chapter President Harla Y. Major. The event was coordinated by Harla Major with Ms. Claudia Pagan as the committee chairperson. This dynamic duo hosted the event for the next three years.  The first ball was held at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in February 2003. The speaker was the chairman of the Department of Aviation from Georgia State University.  This event became our major fund raiser to raise funds to support our annual ACE camps and to help with our educational scholarships given each year to students in the local Atlanta area. The ball was a success and fun was had by all.  
    The next year the chapter decided, if it’s not broke don’t fix it and again in 2004, the Sheraton Gateway was the location of our second Black & White Scholarship Ball. Dr. Raymond Cain Jr., Director of Aviation from Florida Memorial College in Miami joined us for an enjoyable evening, as our guest speaker.
     In February 2005, we went to the Renaissance Concourse Hotel, where Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was our guest speaker and Michael Muhammad stepped in as the new chapter president. Santi, a young male teenager who played the piano beautifully was the featured guest musician for the night.
 Our fourth year, Mr. Michael Muhammad and Ms. Tina Criss, of VIP consultants, led us to the Atlanta Airport Hilton and on March 18, 2006, motivational speaker and comedian ,Mr. Dick Gregory graced us with his wisdom, wit and humor.
   In 2007 we returned back to the Atlanta Airport Hilton, where Ms. Ventris Gibson, the assistant administrator to the FAA and Mr.Jamail Larkins, Ambassador to the FAA for youth as well as a stunt pilot were our featured guest. Chapter President Paquita Bradley and her committed committee members did an outstanding job as we raised over $9000.00 for the ACE Camp and awarded 4 high school scholarships @ $1000.00 each. Additionally we awarded a $2000.00 scholarship with matching funds from Careers in Aviation, a non profit organization that is affiliated with Jamaal Larkins.

  In 2003, The Atlanta Chapter decided they would join many other NBCFAE chapters and would host an ACE camp. We received 20 applications that year and accepted all of the students. Renee Chatman volunteered to be the ACE Camp Coordinator and quickly went to work. The first year we toured Lockheed Martin and the children got a chance to witness a C-130 aircraft and the new Raptor aircraft being built.
  Each year the camp starts with a pre-test to see how much aviation knowledge each student has, and the test is given again at the end of the week to see how much the students have learned.
   In 2004 we had 24 applicants and had a week of fun. After accepting the 24 students, we decided that that was a comfortable number for us to handle and it also worked well with the transportation. In 2005 and 2006, the word was out and students from all over the city were applying for a spot in the camp. Today the Atlanta chapter has a waiting list and unfortunately because of manpower and funds we have had to actually turn some students away or try to steer them to other camps.
  The week long activities include lectures from Tuskegee Airmen, Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers and many other Aviation related professions. We tour FAA and other aviation related facilities. Each year the children visit the Science and Space Museum in Macon GA. One year we even did a space mission at the now closed Sci-Trek in downtown Atlanta.
   The students have fun building rockets and flying kites as they learn about the forces of flight and finally the last day of the camp is spent with each child actually flying a single engine aircraft with a certified flight instructor. Parents, friends and the students are excited and sometimes scared to see the children actually flying. Last year the students had the pleasure of visiting and get on a Hot Air Balloon, unfortunately because of the winds they did not get to go up in the air; however, most of them were just excited to actually see what a real one looks like up close. To date Atlanta chapter has exposed 114 students in our local area to our ACE Camp and we can’t wait for the next camp.  The dates of this year’s camp are June 16-20, 2008. Get started early, the deadline for submitting the applications, is May 16, 2008. Applications are available on line at www.nbcfaeatl.com and an application will be located inside your souvenir booklet, at this year’s event.