Features

Three Berkeley residents and two Berkeley organizations will be honored tonight at the Berkeley Community Fund’s Seventh annual Awards Dinner. 

The event will be hosted by Board President Narsai David and will continue the 71-year tradition of bestowing the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal for long-time service to Berkeley.  

This year, Chief Justice of the United States District Court for Northern California Thelton E. Henderson, will receive the prestigious award.  

Judge Henderson is honored for his lifetime of work in the areas of civil rights, constitutional principles and mentoring of young minority lawyers.  

Berkeley Community Awards will be awarded to individuals who have served the community well. 

This year’s recipients are Carolyn North, founder and mainstay of the Daily Bread program; and Harry Weininger, civic and cultural leader and consensus builder.  

North took a simple and courageous step when she decided to connect excess food from restaurants and bakeries with hungry people. 

Weininger has shown Berkeley the importance of “seeing the commonalties” in people and the danger of political polarization within a community.  

Bay Area Outdoor Recreation Program and the New Bridge Foundation will receive the Berkeley Community Award for nonprofit groups that comes with a grant of $5,000. 

In addition to these grants, the fund has awarded 18 grants to community organizations in Berkeley, as well as three $2,000 college scholarships to deserving Class of 2000 Berkeley High School graduates Jabris Patterson, Jimmy Tran and Dana Troy. Grants and scholarships come from community contributions and foundation grants. 

Because the board of directors covers all administrative costs, all contributions go directly into grantmaking and scholarships.  

The Berkeley Community Fund was founded in 1992 by civic, business and community leaders committed to improving life in Berkeley by philanthropy focused on solutions to social and economic problems at the local level.  

The Dinner will be at H’s Lordships in the Berkeley Marina. A reception will begin at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. 

Ticket prices for this event, with dinner and entertainment, are being kept to $35 to make the event affordable to a larger number of people. The costs for the dinner and awards are being underwritten by local businesses and individuals. For more information, call 843-5202