{"id":217411,"date":"2026-04-03T11:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217411\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:58:34","slug":"first-friends-of-the-children-tampa-bay-class-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217411\/","title":{"rendered":"First Friends of the Children Tampa Bay class graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. — The first cohort of students in the Friends of the Children Tampa Bay<\/a> are graduating from the program and starting a new phase in life.<\/p>\n

Imagine having someone to rely on in the toughest of life’s moments.<\/p>\n

For the past 12 years, the children impacted by the foster system or facing hardship at home have had that person in their lives to help them get through.<\/p>\n

Spectrum News met a pair of young students and their mentor who have almost spent a lifetime together and are celebrating a milestone.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

\u00a0The first cohort of kids in the Friends of the Children<\/a> program are graduating
\n
\u00a0Ken Baker has been a mentor in the program since its inception
\n
\u00a0Ken helped Donovan and Dominic throughout their lives for the last 12 years<\/p>\n

Growing up has not been easy for Donovan Penticoff.<\/p>\n

“I grew up not knowing who my parents were, and I lost vision to one eye as a baby,” said\u00a0Penticoff.<\/p>\n

He was living with his grandmother when, at age five,\u00a0Penticoff met Ken Baker.<\/p>\n

“Donovan\u2019s background has been pretty tough,\u201d Baker said. \u201cHe was adopted at an early age by his grandma. You know, a parent was incarcerated, and the other parent was nowhere to be seen. She was very protective of him. He was her baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker said tragedy struck soon after he started mentoring Penticoff through the Friends of the Children<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then about two years in, sadly she passed from a car accident,” he said.<\/p>\n

Penticuff, along with his little sister, was then taken in by his aunt who was 20 years old at the time.<\/p>\n

Baker became an integral part in their lives.<\/p>\n

Around the same time,\u00a0Penticoff. met another boy named Dominic who Baker also took under his wing through the Friends of the Children program.<\/p>\n

“So, they grew up together. From age five, they would see each other maybe once a month or every couple of months. Now, they see each other pretty much every week on our outings,\u201d Baker said. \u201cThey both came from the foster care system. So, they bounced around quite a bit. Had various caregivers of different situations.”<\/p>\n

What has remained constant in the last 12 years is Baker in the teens\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

He is the friend in the Friends of the Children program. But he is more than that.<\/p>\n

“He’s prepared me for things I wasn’t prepared for. He’s shown me different traits like how to persevere and be determined,\u201d said Penticoff. \u201cHe’s preparing me for college, and he just prepared me for adulthood.”<\/p>\n

Baker sparked a passion for wrestling in Donovan.<\/p>\n

Even helped him train.<\/p>\n

Penticoff has made the honor roll throughout high school as well and flexes about his friendship with Donovan, who has been sort of a brother.<\/p>\n

The three have shared the last 12 years together.<\/p>\n

“Most of my memories are with him,\u201d said Dominic. \u201cHe went to my elementary school and my middle school. And I would see him every day and my entire class loved him. Everyone loved him.”<\/p>\n

Ken provided the love as their mentor.<\/p>\n

“There are so many different mentorship groups that are there for a little while. Sometimes the mentor\u2019s change. Some are volunteer basis, so some come and go,\u201d said Baker said. \u201cBut for a mentor to be involved with someone for 12 and half years and you know it’s going to go beyond that…this is a truly long-term thing.”<\/p>\n

Donovan will graduate from Pasco High School this year.<\/p>\n

And he has plans for the future.<\/p>\n

“And maybe even one day, be a mentor for Friends of the Children,” said\u00a0Penticoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. — The first cohort of students in the Friends of the Children Tampa Bay are graduating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,274,25743,28,1548,276,115,772,25744,135,137,136,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-217411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-feel-good-friday","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-good-news","13":"tag-hillsborough-county","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","16":"tag-roy-de-jesus","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-tampa-headlines","19":"tag-tampa-news","20":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}