Faint impressions left in the sand on Key Biscayne’s beaches are quite common.
Not as common, however, are other impressions that can have life-changing impacts.
That’s where Constantino Peña comes in.
Peña, a 17-year-old Key Biscayne resident, who graduated from Ransom Everglades High on Friday with Cum Laude honors, is the founder of Key Companions, an endeavor he started four years ago as a freshman to provide fun-filled “Social Saturdays” for kids with special needs.
“It’s an awesome feeling hearing their sisters and moms coming up to me and saying the kids are always asking, ‘Is it Saturday yet?’” said Peña, who goes by Tino. “That puts a smile on my face immediately. Serving a community that is underserved in this area and seeing the smiles on their faces has certainly been worth it.”
When Peña’s project started in late 2022, he recalled his first session, a simple one-on-one connection with a boy named Lucas.
“I wanted to see how it would go,” Peña said. “Over time, it kind of grew much bigger.”
Young attendees playing Uno, a popular card game, on a Social Saturday.
Today, Peña’s special needs Social Saturday community has typically stretched to 20 or 25 attendees. The list of volunteers has amazingly expanded to 97 students from area high schools such as MAST, Mater Brickell, Carrollton and Gulliver Prep, all willing to donate their time for such a heart-warming cause.
“They’re awesome,” Peña said.
Others have taken notice, too. Peña recently won a Silver Knight Honorable Mention award in General Scholarship out of 55 Miami-Dade County seniors.
Peña is also a National Merit Scholar, Coolidge Senator, Bank of America Student Leader, state champion in Economics, as well as a Congressional Award Gold Medal winner that will be bestowed on him soon.
As a sophomore, Peña earned the Hero Volunteer Award from “It Takes a Village,” the nonprofit from which co-founder Laura Teran Zapata still oversees the Social Saturdays gatherings.
Peña, who has been a “pretty good” varsity baseball pitcher and a third degree black belt karate instructor under the tutelage of Sensei Robert Duzoglou, said he got interested in Social Saturdays after learning that a cousin, Aiden Garcia, up in New Jersey, was diagnosed with autism.
Tino Peña with the RDCA MMA team after receiving his black belt.
Social Saturdays include a lot of fun projects, usually at the Key Biscayne Community Center, for those with not only autism, but also Down Syndrome, Tourette syndrome, and hearing impairment.
“There’s a big-time need, and that’s the reason for a lot of the activities we have,” Peña said. “For kids with special needs, once they hit 16, 17, 18, basically they’re on their own; they can’t hang out and do things with the other kids that they might have done before, so that’s where Social Saturdays come in and makes a big impact.”
A sampling of the activities, even for adults, include basketball, arts and crafts, pizza parties, birthday celebrations and even a DJ who teaches them how to mix songs.
“That is really fun,” Peña said.
Peña will be attending Stanford University in September to study economics and data science, opting for the California college over Notre Dame, Penn State and a full ride at Boston College.
Peña’s leaving Social Saturdays in good hands, turning the reins over to his “really good friend,” longtime volunteer Nanda Lage, who will be a senior at Carrollton.
Peña , the youngest of four children in his family, has made his mom, Barbara Peña, especially proud.
“The great thing about him is that he’s really humble, a quiet leader,” she said. “Moms approach him when we’re in Sir Pizza or Winn-Dixie and they say, ‘We love you so much’ and how proud they are of him.
“As parents, we’re always trying, and disciplining your kids. Then, when they actually do the right thing, it makes you proud.”
Note: For more information on Social Saturdays, click here.