BERKELEY, MO (KMOX) – Over two hundred Missouri and Illinois police and sheriff’s departments had representatives in Berkeley at the Renaissance Airport to make J.D. Daniel and honorary police officer.
D.J. made national headlines after he was made an honorary secret service agent during President Trump’s State of the Union.. DJ’s dad, Theo Daniel , says, his child’s brain cancer has metastasized to his spine and doctors have found three more tumors. Mr. Daniel says they don’t have bad days, despite the inevitable, they are going throughout the country doing God’s work.
After seeing D.J. at the State of Union address, Berkeley Police Major Steve Runge set up a Go Fund Me for D.J. and his family. Runge says the stress on the family, the miracles that doctors perform is breath taking. “And we’re really blessed to be living in a society, where we can get that kind of cure and get that kind of treatment. Aside from that, the most important thing is each other, I mean honestly when is the last time you saw group of people come together from two states for just ten kids. It’s never happened before and what you ladies and gentlemen, you young future police officers give us, is you give us hope, they give me hope. When I saw D.J. getting sworn in by the President that gave me hope. You know, here’s a kid, sometimes we think we got it bad, right, but do we, he doesn’t. I’ve talked to D.J. quite a bit and I’ve talked to his dad and the most positive person, the most positive young man, his dad has never said a foul word about anybody. We’ve talked about everything from barbequing to fixing up old hot rods. His dad is just a normal guy. He’s taken his son over across the United States, he’s got over a quarter million miles on his old car and just goes from department to department (police).”
The ten kids Runge is referring to, are children from rainbowsforkids a 501 (c)(3) charity in the greater St. Louis Area which works with families of children with cancer and other serious situations.
D.J had a chance to throw out the first pitch at a Houston Astros game, but he decided to go see Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in Florida instead. He did get to throw out the first pitch though Tuesday night at Busch Stadium for the Cards Astros game.
Mr. Daniel says by going from town to town, bringing people together is so important because everyone needs to come together and as a show of unity, he introduced Mike Brown Senior, who’s son Michael Junior died in a shooting with Ferguson Police back in 2014…