[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 21 (Thursday, February 4, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E115-E116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN HONOR OF ASSISTANT CHIEF MARK DANT'S RETIREMENT FROM THE CARROLLTON 
                           POLICE DEPARTMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. KENNY MARCHANT

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 4, 2016

  Mr. MARCHANT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mark Dant for his 
thirty-eight years of public service, ending this month as an Assistant 
Chief for the Carrollton, Texas Police Department. Prior to his service 
with the Carrollton Police Department, Mark served four years in the 
United States Air Force and two and a half years as a firefighter with 
the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety. 
For the last thirty-two years, Mark has been serving and protecting the 
people of Carrollton as a Patrol Officer, Detective, Patrol Sergeant, 
Lieutenant, and Assistant Chief of Police.
  Mark's service to the community isn't limited to his direct roles for 
the Carrollton Police Department, far from it--he and his family have 
become national leading advocates for patients of rare diseases. It is 
through this work that I have had the distinct pleasure of working with 
Mark for almost ten years. Mark and his wife Jeanne are parents of one 
child, Ryan, who currently attends the University of

[[Page E116]]

Louisville. In 1992, their son Ryan was diagnosed with the then 
terminal genetic disease Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS Type 1). Shortly 
after learning of this diagnosis, Mark founded The Ryan Foundation to 
raise funds for developing treatments for the disease. The Dant 
family's first fundraising effort, a bake sale, netted $342. The 
foundation has come a very long way since that first bake sale, much to 
the tenacious determination of Mark Dant. Millions of research dollars 
over the years have been donated to scientists searching for treatments 
to help those afflicted with the various forms of MPS. The Ryan 
Foundation's efforts spearheaded the funding for the first MPS Enzyme 
Replacement Therapy--Aldurazyme. Ryan Dant is the longest treated 
person in the world on Aldurazyme, which to date is approved to treat 
children with MPS in more than 75 countries. What all started as a bake 
sale in Carrollton has blossomed into helping children with a 
previously untreatable disease all around the world.
  To help support the tireless efforts of the Dant family and the 
countless individuals, I introduced the Ryan Dant Health Care 
Opportunity Act, H.R. 1441 in the 111th Congress. Much to the hard work 
of Mark Dant and his family, this legislation achieved over fifty 
bipartisan cosponsors. Mark's advocacy for individuals afflicted by 
rare diseases will not cease anytime soon--he is expanding upon the 
initial volunteer efforts of a heartfelt concerned father many years 
ago, and will now serve as the Executive Director of the National MPS 
Society in Durham, North Carolina. I can think of no one better suited 
or well qualified for this position than Mark. Though the people of 
Carrollton are losing one of their finest public servants, countless 
affected individuals will now have the best person they could ever ask 
for leading the efforts in developing treatments and awareness for MPS.
  I ask for all of my colleagues to join me in congratulating Mark Dant 
on his well-earned retirement from the Carrollton Police Department. I 
wish Mark, and the Dant family much new success with the National MPS 
Society.

                          ____________________