In addition to celebrating the start of a New Year on Jan. 1, Blakeslee also received the gift of a lifetime for his 11th birthday thanks to some help from friend and neighbor Jeff Russell.

A city councilman and former JPD officer, Russell organized a parade of officers including Chief Timothy Jackson, Lt. Robert Bender, Det. Douglas Weaver, and officers Jakki Ahlbin, Lacey Clark and Erik Johanson to stop by the Blakeslee household to help with the celebration.

“He is still very much talking about it, and it has been a month now,” said Cassie Blakeslee, Levi’s mother. As a 2-year-old, Levi underwent an eight-hour brain surgery to remove an Arachnoid cyst.

“Jeff is our neighbor and his daughter Piper is Levi’s best friend,” Blakeslee said. “They know how much Levi loves the police, so Jeff set it up for his birthday. He has been a police officer for Halloween every year since he was five. He has a police costume that he wears all the time. Anytime we see the police he has to say ‘Hi’ to them, it doesn’t matter where we are. For him, he was so excited.”

As luck would have it, the parade was just the start of the excitement. Community resource officer Matthew Rhinehart posted a video of the event to the department’s Facebook page, and by Jan. 25 the view count had shot to more than a million.

“We were shocked,” Blakeslee said. “It was something that was very sweet for him, to go so viral, but it also showed the good perspective on the police and all they do for the community, which I thought was really nice.”

Wanting to show their appreciation for the gesture, the Blakeslees delivered a thank-you card to JPD headquarters on Martin Luther King Day. Once again, expectations where broken in the best way possible.

“I had him write a thank-you note to the police officers,” Blakeslee said. “So we took the card up there and he got to see Hope, the new K-9 and he got to walk around with officer Rhinehart and have a tour, which he was very excited about.”

Levi was also able to meet with officers participating in SWAT practice and try on a vest.

JPD announced Hope, an 8-week-old yellow Labrador, as the department’s first domestic violence comfort dog last week.

Visit the JPD Facebook page to view the video and additional photos.