Marla Gregg, DUSON’s director of alumni and development programs, was recently able to make a tragic family anniversary into one with some better memories. On December 19, 2008, Marla’s father - seemingly in great health - suffered an ischemic stroke that ultimately left him without the use of his left side. While he has shown inspiring resilience and courage over the years by recreating a positive and productive life, this day each year is remembered by the family as one that changed their lives for the worse forever…until this year.

This year, Marla was selected as a winner in Duke Health Chancellor A. Eugene Washington’s employee basketball raffle. Ironically, the game for which Marla won the tickets was on December 19. She saw this as an opportunity to help her father temper a historically terrible memory and create a new, more positive one. 

There was just one challenge that Marla needed to overcome to pull off this wonderful surprise: disability-accessible seats. Through the great efforts of Diane Uzarski, DUSON Chief of Staff for Dean Marion E. Broome, and Suzy Johnson, Administrative Coordinator, and Rukmini Balu, Chief of Staff for Chancellor Washington, they were able to secure disability-accessible seating by way of two courtside seats.

“I can't imagine the amount of work it took to make this happen, but I am so grateful to each of them,” said Marla. “The staff at Cameron Indoor Stadium couldn't have been more accommodating, and our seats couldn't have been better. I will always be so thankful to Diane, Suzy and Rukmini for making this happen. From now on, December 19 will be the day that one of my dad's dreams came true: to sit courtside at a Duke Men’s basketball game.”