Boy Transforms Into Neighborhood Superhero Thanks to Special Armor
— -- A North Carolina boy got a special gift for his fourth birthday: a day as a superhero.
Arlo Jordan, of Raleigh, North Carolina is normally painfully shy, according to his mother, Melissa Jordan, but when he dons his special armor he becomes an brave superhero named Raleighman.
"He changes and gets more courage to talk to folks," Melissa Jordan said.
She added that it was Arlo who first came up with the idea for a Raleighman.
"He started to say, 'I’m going to be Raleighman,'" when he grows up, Jordan told ABC News. "Raleighman saves people and fights bad guys and does nice things."
Jordan and her husband then decided to bring Raleighman to life for Arlo's fourth birthday.
"We are not super crafty people but we scoured the Internet and were up late at night," she said.
They presented the excited birthday boy with a Raleighman costume and sent him into the community to do good. The newly minted Raleighman took breakfast to firefighters and gave out flowers to people at a local community center.
Jordan said the costume also has been specially formulated because Arlo has a vision defect that leaves him very susceptible to light. Now, the helmet goes almost everywhere with the family. If Arlo feels too shy, he can don his special helmet and get the courage to talk to new people.
Arlo's reliance on helmets came in handy last year at his uncle's wedding. While the he was too shy to walk down the aisle as a ring bearer on his own, he was able to wear his uncle's flight helmet and bravely marched down the aisle.
Jordan said her son is happy to be getting a lot of practice as the superhero he will one day be for real.
"[He says,] 'I’m just dressing up but I’m really going to be Raleighman when I grow up,'" Jordan said.
