State Police Troop B Children’s Grant-A-Wish Foundation gives sheriff’s deputy’s son who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy a dream come true: a trip to Hawaii for the NFL Pro Bowl all-star game

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Clayten Burns and his wife, Michelle, who live in Arabi, say they wouldn’t have been able to give their 10-year-old son, Brogan, the dream come true that happened to him Tuesday.

But through the Louisiana State Police Troop B Children’s Grant-A-Wish Foundation, Brogran, who was diagnosed at age four with Duchenne Myscular Dystrophy – a disorder that involves rapidly worsening muscle weakness – will receive what any young football-crazy boy like he is would love.

Brogan and his family will get an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii in late January, which includes tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl all-star game and possibly the chance to meet players there.

With classmates at Arabi Elementary School and relatives including his parents and grandparents on hand, Brogan was honored in a ceremony at the school by State Police and former New Orleans Saint player and current team employee Michael Lewis who played in a Pro Bowl game himself. Sheriff James Pohlmann also attended.

Lewis said he enjoys doing such charitable work. “What better can you do than to help children?,’’ said Lewis, who sports a Saints 2009-10 Super Bowl ring he showed the children at Arabi Elementary and played in the 2003 Pro Bowl all-star game as a Saint.

Sheriff Pohlmann said he is happy for the family of Dep. Sheriff Clayten Burns, a 13-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, and hopes Brogan has the kind of fun the boy deserves.

The State Police Grant-A-Wish Foundation, started in Troop B of the New Orleans area in the late 1990s, enables children with a life-altering or life-threatening illness to fulfill a wish they would not otherwise be financially able to do.

“Oh my gosh,’’ Brogran’s mother, Michelle Burns, said about the excitement surrounding the trip since the family learned he had been chosen for the Grant-A-Wish program.

Brogran is a fifth-grader at Arabi Elementary, which he attends with his brother, Liam Burns, 7. He also has another brother, Peyton Ronquillo, 8.

“He is a big football fan’’ and loves to watch the New Orleans Saints, Brogan’s mother said. Given options of what type trip he would like, the boy chose the Pro Bowl all-star game in Hawaii, she said. “He said he wanted to do it.’’

Brogran, wearing a hat autographed for him by Michael Lewis and sitting next to his grandfather, retired Sheriff’s Deputy Earl Burns, said his favorite TV channel is the NFL Network. The boy also said he has seen the Pro Bowl all-star game on TV and wants to go in person.

Clayten Burns said the trip to Hawaii and everything including the tickets to the football game is something his family couldn’t have afforded themselves.

“He (Brogran) wouldn’t have had this opportunity,’’ without the State Police program, Burns said. The family sometimes travels to a medical center in Cincinnati for examination of the boy and they try to make the trip a time to also have some fun together, he said.

The parents have been involved in the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding research and raising awareness for the effort to end Duchenne, which occurs in about one of every 3,600 male infants.

They started what was called Brogan’s Run in 2011 as a fund-raiser for the national organization. “It’s all about trying to find a cure,’’ Clayten Burns said at the time. There is no known cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Treatment aims to control symptoms to maximize quality of life.

State Police Maj. Carl Saizan, a Chalmette native, former sheriff’s deputy and last year promoted State Police Region 1 Commander for the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and North Shore areas, founded the Grant-A-Wish program for Troop B in the late 1990s.

Early efforts at raising funds included several road races in St. Bernard Parish in which the Sheriff’s Office provided route security at no cost, said Maj. Saizan, who also attended the Brogan Burns event.

Today, he said, money is raised through various methods including a golf tournament and corporate sponsorships, including donations the last two years from the Valero Refinery at Meraux in St. Bernard Parish.

Last year, the program was able to help two children, Maj. Saizan said.

He said, “We have sent kids to New York, Disney World and once sent a St. Bernard Parish girl and her family to Europe before Hurricane Katrina.”

Maj. Saizan said the Grant-A-Wish program is gratifying. “It takes that financial burden off the family and gives them a chance to get away to have fun.” The boy or girl “gets a trip of a lifetime,’’ he said.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community.’’

He said he heard about Brogan and his family from someone at the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office and it was later decided to try to do something for the boy.

“We worked with the New Orleans Sports Foundation and the NFL to purchase the tickets” and make arrangements for a trip to the Pro Bowl game, he said.

Along with Maj. Saizan, others attending from State Police included Sgt. Chris Brown, Troop B Affiliate President for the Louisiana State Troopers Association; Lt. Ronnie Tardo and Trooper Arthur Laurent of Troop B and Trooper Andrew Pratt, of the Bureau of Investigation.