BAY MINETTE — Athletes get banquets.

Social clubs and service organizations hold annual meetings and the occasional mixer to spotlight superstar performances.

Charles Lake said the 27th Annual Computer Science Fair, slated for 9 a.m. Friday, March 25, at Faulkner State Community College’s L.D. Owen Performing Arts Center, shines the light squarely on students with a penchant for technology.

 “We dominate,” said Lake, chair of Faulkner’s business and computer science department and coordinator of the state’s largest regional technology fair with a history of spawning state-level winners.

Regional winners advance to the State Fair at Auburn University Montgomery in April.

 “This is their time to shine,” Lake said of the south Alabama competitors who typically outpace participants in the six other regions of the state by more than three-to-one.

“It’s just our way of reinforcing what these students do, acknowledging the importance of their achievements and shining the light on their hard work,” he said.

The south Alabama competition is the only region to maintain continuous participation in the program since a troupe of teachers traveled to Birmingham in 1984 to lobby for the creation of what has become the Alabama Council for Technology in Education. Today, the council consists of seven regions.

Lake said Faulkner State swore its support of the program “from day one,” and its commitment has never wavered.

“We have more than 45 schools participate each year because they know we take them seriously,” he said.

Lake said 1,421 students from across 20 south Alabama counties participated in 2010, and he’s expecting at least that many if not more in 2011. The competition is open to students in both public and private schools in third- through 12th-grades.

Baldwin County Schools spokesman Terry Wilhite said students from Bay Minette Middle School delivered standout performances in 2010, but they were by no means the only Baldwin County standouts.

“I recall Bay Minette Middle sweeping the awards,” Wilhite said, noting student work was critiqued based on concept, explanation and effort.

Meanwhile, pre-engineering students at Baldwin County High School took home 12 awards., including a first-place honor for Marlee Long and Brittany Lins in general applications.

Principal Tammie Flemming said BMMS plans on repeating its success in 2011, but she referred discussion of specifics to sponsor John Hope who was not immediately available at press time.

Projects are judged in 14 categories, including information technology, Internet Web page authorship, applications, media, hardware, individual programming, video production, Web page creation, group projects and team programming. 

 “I stop and ask myself why I do this sometimes, why put up with the aggravation of organizing something so big, and then you see the face of a kid whose project just won first place, and you know they’re on cloud nine. That’s why we do it,” he said.

And while three, two-year scholarships — representing a total value of about $18,000 — are up for grabs, Lake said the program’s intent actually runs even deeper.

“We start this program in the third grade because usually by the time they make it to the middle or high school level, these kids have either already made up their minds what they want to do, or they’re just your typical adolescents who know everything and aren’t really open to giving something new a try,” he said.

“But I’ve seen some of these kids go all the way through to 12th grade, and it’s about getting to that place where they’re confident in what they do and don’t need that pat on the back any more. When they’ve got that confidence, and you can see it on their faces, you know you’ve done your job.”

Although the application period technically ended March 11, Lake said he won’t turn any interested student away, and the event is open to the public. For more information or to register, contact Lake at (251) 580-2149 or clake@faulknerstate.edu.