The smiles on the faces of the employees of the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department Wednesday were only outshone by the one on the face of their newest colleague, 7-year-old Piero Arroyo. 

His first day on the job, Piero got a uniform, complete with patches and a tie. He got to ride shotgun in a police car, and he got to put handcuffs on a ‘suspect.’ For the little boy with the shining face and the courageous heart, it was a dream come true. 

The day was arranged by the sheriff’s department and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Piero is battling cancer, reports the USA Today.

‘I can’t describe the words, what it was like to be able to be there and be part of that, to see that young man who’s been through so much, to make him smile,’ said Sheriff Bill Rasco. ‘Every time we’d give him a gift, his face would light up, and he’d say, ‘Wow!’’

A video created by the sheriff’s department shows Piero being wheeled into the sheriff’s office with his eyes closed, and his mother counting down in their native tongue. When he opens his eyes, he’s met with welcome signs by several members of the sheriff’s department. 

It could almost slip your mind as you watch Piero, whose smile is contagious throughout the video, that he fights for his life every day. Just like any kid who wants to be a cop, he revels in meeting the sheriff, and in the patch he’s given by the SWAT team members. 

And then they brought out his uniform. It has his name on it. It has the brass. It even has the Class A stripe down the side of the pants. 

When they brought it in and showed it to him, he almost seemed to lose his breath. The excitement can be heard in his voice, and in the voice of the deputy who points out the real-life pieces of the uniform in Spanish. And throughout the presentation, Rasco could be seen wiping tears from his eyes. He wasn’t the only one.

‘His mom said Piero would not be taking off the uniform anytime soon,’ said Amanda Wiig, of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. ’It was a really special time for them.’

Deputy Alex Coker, who helped pull all the special pieces of the day together, said the sheriff’s department knew they didn’t have to do much more than let Piero hang out with them and see some real officers. But, he said, they wanted to make the day really memorable.

‘He’s been through some trauma. You could see how much it meant to him to be there,’ Coker said. ‘He could have gone to Disney World, or on a shopping spree, but his only wish was to be a cop.’

Part of that was contacting CMS Uniforms out of Memphis, who handles uniform orders for the sheriff’s department. They took them the shirt and pants on Wednesday morning and asked if they could do it by Wednesday evening so Piero could wear his work clothes when they took him out on his first tour of duty.

‘We work very closely with DeSoto County, and when he called me and said, ‘Can you help me,’ I said, ‘Of course!’’ said CMS employee Nancy Weems. ‘We embroidered the name so it would be on there, and we did the tie with the tie tac ... just all of that. We’re all mothers here, it touched our hearts.’

Weems said the employees of CMS had all been as emotional watching the video as the deputies in the video were. 

‘You’ve got these big bad guys, a lot of them are rough and tough, and all of them are smiling and you can see the tenderness on their faces,’ she said.

After he suited up, Piero came out in his new uniform to applause. He was issued his equipment and ate donuts with one of the other deputies before they put him on the road.

He learned how to shoot his cap guns at a target, and then he got in the passenger side of a real police cruiser and performed a traffic stop, issuing the ‘offender’ a ticket written in red crayon. He also got to handcuff a masked ‘suspect’ and spray him down with silly string.

‘At the end of the day I could tell he was tired, but he was smiling and having a great time. To be part of that, it’s emotional,’ Rasco said. ‘We sometimes forget that we’re blessed... It’s a privilege to bring joy to his life. It means so much.’

Weems said it was a blessing to her and the CMS crew to be able not only to help Piero out, but also the DeSoto County guys. 

‘People ask me why I stay in it, and I say, ‘because nobody takes care of these guys. What they see, 99 percent of the time, is the bad stuff,’ she said. ‘So for them to be involved in something happy and being able to make somebody happy like this is a joy for us.’

It’s special to Make-A-Wish as well, said Wiig. The foundation began with another 7-year-old boy and another law enforcement agency.

‘Make-A-Wish’s relationship with law enforcement is where we started; the first-ever wish 37 years ago was for Chris Grecius, who wanted to be a police officer,’ said Wiig.