Lowndes County Sheriff's Office photoBentley Evans, 4, is badged as a junior deputy after deputies, state troopers and firefighters showed up for his birthday celebration.

VALDOSTA — A Lowndes County child had a very merry birthday recently thanks to deputies, firefighters and state troopers.

Katie Evans contacted the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and asked if they could send a deputy around to visit her 4-year-old son, Bentley, “for a little fist-bump, a high-five,” said Capt. Rick Crosby of the sheriff’s office.

It seems Bentley has a fascination with law enforcement, Crosby said.

Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk approved the request, and things grew from there, the captain said.

“I contacted the shift working that day and said, ‘Do what you can to get as many as you can to go,'” he said.

That included reaching out to other departments. Nine deputies, a state trooper and three county firefighters with a fire truck met Bentley, his mother, his father, Stanley, and other family members at the Dasher City Hall park, Crosby said.

The first responders even took up a collection among themselves and brought a number of law-enforcement-themed gifts, including a Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office teddy bear, junior deputy stick-on badges and other small items, the captain said.

“They weren’t ordered to do this, they just decided on their own to do this,” Crosby said.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.