VIDEO: Dr. Mary Valmont; student Leslie Chang; Mike Lupica; Hon. David Dinkins; Patrick McEnroe; Gail Marquis; Bill Rhoden; and Cheryl Wills

What's The 411's correspondent, Andrew Rosario, covered the Arthur Ashe Sports Ball 2012, an event to benefit the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH).

The event held at Chelsea Piers brought out many New York City luminaries and dignitaries who wholeheartedly want to support the legacy of tennis great Arthur Ashe and the science enrichment program provided by the AAIUH.

Starting with Dr. Mary Valmont, Associate Director for Health Science Education, Health Science Academy, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, we get more information about the science enrichment program.

In partnership with the State University of New York - Downstate, AAIUH's science enrichment program is designed for college-bound high school students. It is an intensive, high-achieving health sciences program serving 180 students who attend anatomy and physiology courses, including those focused on the reproductive and cardio- vascular systems. The students also attend gross anatomy labs and other science-oriented demonstrations. Students participate in the program for three years, attending once a week for 13 weeks over six semesters. The Health Science Academy boasts a 98 percent college admission rate with most of its students going on to medical school, graduate school, and doctoral programs.

Leslie Chang, a high school student and this year's scholarship winner at the Arthur Ashe Sports Ball 2012, received a check in the amount of $1,968, which is symbolic of the year Arthur Ashe won the U.S. Open for the first time. Chang started with the Health Science Academy as a sophomore and plans to attend college to study biomedical engineering.

Chang learned about the program from a teacher who spotted his great achievement in chemistry.

NY Daily News columnist and ESPN 98.7 FM Radio host, Mike Lupica, a supporter of the Arthur Ashe Sports Ball, reminisced about being at center court when Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975 and how he enjoyed their golf outings. Mike was floored by a comment Arthur Ashe made about race and the HIV/AIDS virus and he wished Arthur Ashe could have lived to see the election of President Barack Obama.

Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins reflected on the good friendship that he had with Arthur Ashe. He spoke at one of Ashe's memorial services and concluded his remarks with "he (Arthur Ashe) was a credit to his race, the human race."

"Arthur was a helluva guy," Dinkins continued.

Dinkins chuckled as he remembered Ashe laughing at him when they played tennis together.

Former professional tennis player, Patrick McEnroe, shared how he benefited from Arthur Ashe's generosity. McEnroe remembers Ashe inviting him to Ireland for the Davis Cup as a practice player. At the time, Ashe was captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team and Patrick McEnroe was a junior player. Ashe thought it would be a good opportunity for Patrick McEnroe to join his brother John enabling them both to see their family in Ireland.

"...everything he (Arthur) did in tennis and what he did for tennis pales in comparison to what he did just in his life," McEnroe stated.

Next up was Gail Marquis, an Olympic silver medalist. Marquis was the recipient of an AAIUH Trailblazer Award. With the help of Patrick McEnroe, Ms. Marquis, admits to Andrew Rosario that she has come to realize that after 40 years in sports, she is no longer an All-American. She is now a trailblazer and she is willing to embrace her trailblazer status. Gail Marquis won a silver medal for women's basketball at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Ms. Marquis is also in the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

When NY Times Sports Columnist Bill Rhoden, one of the co-hosts for the evening, spoke with Andrew Rosario, he too, went below the surface, as he remembered Arthur Ashe.

"Coming into a sport in a context, where, like, Jackie Robinson, those kinds of people, where you know that it's not just about tennis or baseball and it's not just about you, that you do represent a lot of people," stated Bill Rhoden.

"And I think that Arthur carried that well and he expected other people, other tennis players, other Black athletes to carry themselves that same way too. So, I think clearly, he (Arthur Ashe) was a product of his time, of the South, of the sport, of the politics and sociology of the sport, and he embraced it."

NY 1 News Anchor Cheryl Wills, stopped by to talk with Andrew Rosario as she got ready for her co-hosting duties for the night's festivities. She remembered Arthur Ashe as a New York and an international icon.

"It is so fitting that we are having this fabulous event to honor him and his legacy and all of the people who are carrying on his legacy," Wills stated.

"Arthur Ashe was about world peace. He was about advancing African-Americans and integrating us into a sports world that once wasn't so inviting to us,...everyone's heart broke when he left us, but this is a wonderful way to remember him," she continued.

VIDEO Discussion: Denver Broncos Demaryus Thomas' mom one of the prisoners serving time under harsh drug sentencing laws

On Monday, July 13, 2015, President Barack Obama granted clemency to the prison sentences of 46 non-violent drug offenders, and one of those prisoners who is set to be freed is the mother of Denver Broncos Demaryius Thomas.

Katrina Smith, the mother of the Denver Broncos wide receiver, incarcerated since 2000, was arrested along with his grandmother, Minnie Pearl Thomas, in 1999 for narcotics trafficking when Demaryius was only 11-years-old.

Smith refused to testify against her mother in exchange for a reduced sentence and was scheduled to be released in 2017, while Minnie Pearl Thomas received a life sentence as a multiple offender.

Now, thanks to President Obama, Katrina Smith will be reunited with her son on November 10, 2015.

The White House issued a press release explaining the action, saying that “federal sentencing practices can, in too many instances, lead nonviolent drug offenders to spend decades, if not life, in prison.”

These unduly harsh sentences are one of the reasons the president is committed to using all the tools at his disposal to remedy unfairness in our criminal justice system. Today, he is continuing this effort by granting clemency to 46 men and women, nearly all of whom would have already served their time and returned to society if they were convicted of the exact same crime today.

Upon hearing the news, Demaryius posted on twitter:

“God is good.. Great news today, my best lady come home November 10.. Godbless..