By Globe Staff

Over 1,300 people filled the main ballroom at the San Francisco Marriott during Tuesday’s 8th Annual Madam C.J. Walker Business Community and Recognition Awards Luncheon hosted by the Oakland/Bay Area Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.

   “This shows the power of black women,” said Carole Ward Allen, a BART board member who also teaches a class at Laney College called Perceptions of African American Women.

    The awards program, emceed by TV personality and author Dr. Brenda Wade, honored community and corporate leaders and highlighted the local chapter’s agenda.

    President Dierdre Luddington said the group’s Positive Steps program that builds selfesteem in young women remains on track. By the end of the year, she said, the chapter will have awarded $85,000 in scholarships and another $80,000 to community organizations.

   “Women take ‘no’ as a vitamin pill,” said Patricia Russell-Mc- Cloud, the gala’s keynote speaker and author of A is for Attitude: An Alphabet for Living. “When women get to the end of their rope, they tie a knot and hang on. Get involved and stop complaining. We cannot afford to be marginalized. Never, never, never give up.”
   “It’s great when African American woman come together and support the community,” said attendee Tamara Cooper, who said she is ready to start her own business. “We are not always about receiving, but also empowerment.”

    The chapter’s Advocacy Award went to Dee Johnson of Oakland’s Lend A Hand Foundation, which distributes school supplies to poor children. “We started doing fish fries [to raise money] in 1998, and we went form giving away 200 backpacks to 1,500. And this year we want to give away 2,000,” said Johnson. “We can make a difference by partnering... help a youth and lend a hand.”

    Linda Crayton, senior director of government relations at Comcast, received the Corporate Award. “Touch somebody’s life with your love, goodness and understanding,” she said.

    The Pioneer Award went to Karen Brown, artistic director of the Oakland Ballet, who said she wore a cape to show her respect for another native of Augusta, GA - the godfather of soul, James Brown. “Your support makes me forget about the troubles I know I face,” said Brown, who is hoping to resurrect the ballet company from its fiscal crisis.

    Schatzie Allen Jefferson, president of The Allen Group, received the Entrepreneur Award, and she thanked her mother, who founded the company.
    Christi Baker was honored with the Nordstrom Corporate Award, and Joy Gibson, who chaired the committee for the luncheon, won the Wells Fargo Corporate Award.
    Natasha Simpson, a high school junior, told the gathering she has benefited from the Positive Steps program. “I made a 360 degree turn,” she said, with a new GPA well above a 3.0. “I am going to attend college and I will be an asset to my community. I am always going to try my best and leave myself open for new opportunities.”
    The local chapter sponsors a wide array of community programs, and attendance at the awards gala has grown from several hundred to well over a thousand in recent years.
    Among the other attendees were Cathy Adams, founding president of the chapter; Dr. Ruth Love, former Oakland Superintendent of Schools; Brenda Wright, senior vice president at Wells Fargo; Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks; and Port of Oakland Commissioner Darlene Ayers Johnson.