Bill Posey: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for coming in contact with a lot of people during my…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for coming in contact with a lot of people during my lifetime, and Richard Salick is certainly one of them. In fact, I think so much of Rich and his selfless giving to others, I introduced this legislation, H.R. 451, to designate the U.S. Post Office on North Brevard Avenue in Cocoa Beach as the Richard K. Salick Post Office. Rich Salick, who passed away on July 2 of 2012, was a local hero and a true champion to many people. Rich was a champion surfer through much of the late 1960s and 1970s, but he was also a lifelong sufferer of kidney disease and a longtime advocate of supporting kidney transplantation and kidney disease patients. What made Rich a champion was not the number of trophies that he won--which was considerable--but the battles he willingly and personally waged on behalf of others in need. At age 23, at the high point of his professional surfing career, Rich fell ill and was told by doctors that he would die if he did not get a kidney transplant. Aided by his twin brother, Phil Salick--who was his first kidney donor--Rich recovered, but was told all physical sports were out of the question in his future. After a year of recovery, Rich developed a unique padding system to protect his transplanted kidney and went on to win surfing contests and even proudly displayed one of the trophies in the Shands teaching hospital in Gainesville, Florida.…”