This piece originally ran in the March 2022 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
Pam Ratliff, EAA 310504, has been an active member of EAA Chapter 91 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, for around 35 years, serving as chapter secretary and treasurer.
“From very early on when I was a new member practically, our secretary died and … I was secretary for over 30 years,” Pam said. “Then I was secretary/treasurer for about 27, 28 years, and I was very active with the chapter. I helped our president with many things. I helped with fundraising for our hangars. We built four hangars, and I was very instrumental in helping collect the money to get the first one off the ground, and then from there, we built three more. Some of them, I was actually physically out there working. I’ve always been at anything that we’ve done. I got the pancake breakfast started, and I’ve always been at all the pancake breakfasts, either cooking or collecting money, or whatever needed to be done.”
At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, Pam has volunteered in a number of capacities, including in the Ultralights and Homebuilts areas.
“I started out by just saying I wanted to volunteer, and they put me up at the front entrance welcoming people or something,” Pam said. “We had a building up towards the line that we had celebrities in, and we had Chuck Yeager who I was escorting. I did that, and then after that, I started working registration for ultralights. Then I moved down to Homebuilts, which is where I worked for quite a few years. I don’t know how many years, quite a few. My best friend is Larry Young, who has also been in Homebuilts dispatching the welcome wagon, and I was in the building selling tickets for the week and all the things that go on in there. If anything was to be done, like nominating people for a Major Achievement Award, I think there are about six or seven of us who received that. I was the one who would write and submit the applications.”
During her years as a volunteer with Chapter 91, Pam has seen the chapter become very active, and she’s happy she could help contribute to its growth.
“Well, it was a do-nothing group for a while, and after a time, after I’d been in it for say four or five years, we got more vital, got more involved,” she said. “We just stirred things up more and found things to do, and then the big thing was building the hangar. That was our first really big project, and I just jumped right in with two feet and helped raised money. We had different kinds of projects and donations and that kind of thing. It just gives me some satisfaction, especially when you’re among a bunch of people who are so involved and vital and interested in a particular subject. I just like being involved when I can.”
In 2021, Pam was named an EAA Volunteer of the Year.
“I was surprised because I think they had submitted an application, oh about six or seven years ago, and nothing came of it, and that’s when I was actively participating. I didn’t know what to think,” Pam said. “I called Oshkosh, and I talked to Brenda. I said, ‘Can you tell me who nominated me?’ I found out eventually that it was Mike Dooley, our current president, which I talked to him and I said, ‘I thought that was very nice.’”
Volunteers make EAA AirVenture Oshkosh — and just about everything else EAA does — possible. This space is dedicated to thanking and shining the spotlight on volunteers from the community. Sadly, it cannot capture all of the thousands of volunteers who give so much to the community every year. So, next time you see a volunteer at AirVenture or elsewhere, however, they are pitching in to make EAA better, be sure to thank them for it. It’s the least we can do. Do you know a volunteer you’d like to nominate for Volunteer Spotlight? Visit EAA.org/Submissions.