The mission of Jim and Karen Baker’s organization, the Jake Baker 27 Fund, calls to mind a saying we sometimes hear: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” The Bakers have represented this idea with the Fund’s logo, picturing a gym weight. Their son Jake, the Fund’s namesake, was an avid and accomplished weightlifter—but his example has taught them so much more about the emotional and spiritual weights that everyone carries.
Most people may not have thought that Jake was carrying a lot.
“One of the most noticeable things about him,” Karen says, “was how outgoing he was and how he got along with everybody. He was personable and memorable. Even when my husband and I visited places outside Thurmont, our town, we ran into many people who knew him. He just excelled at connecting with others.”
Another notable thing about Jake, she relates, is that he was welcoming and kind. He treated everyone with the same courtesy and warmth, often building friendships with shy peers or children with special needs.
This could seem surprising, Jim says, because Jake’s talent and achievements made him stand out. Tall, athletic, he was a 4.0 student at Catoctin High School, where he also was involved in honors art and was a star on the State Champion football team. He graduated in 2020 and was, in fact, voted by his class as “Most Athletic” and “Most Artistic.” His parents still proudly share his many drawings. At the time of his passing, he had earned weight room records and was doing well on the Division II football team at Slippery Rock University.
Even amidst so much to celebrate—and being grounded in a loving, supportive family of faith—Jake still endured a heavy private mental health struggle (the Bakers emphasize that no one is immune). His family was devastated—and their lives changed forever—when he took his own life on May 23, 2024.
Approaching the end of 2025, it’s hard to believe that it’s been only a year and a half since the Bakers’ unthinkable tragedy.
“Sometimes people ask us how we have been able to move forward with the Fund and with
awareness-raising so soon,” Karen says. “We realized immediately that we wanted to be vulnerable with others and to share Jake’s story. It’s the only way we’ll be able to create change.”
Jim echoes that his son’s death has changed him in such a way that any walls he had built previously—to appear stronger than he was or to keep people out—have come down. “I let people know that it’s okay to talk,” he says, “and that I’m always here to listen.”
One of the first groups the Bakers were determined to stand with was Jake’s football team at Slippery Rock. The loss had been crushing to Jake’s teammates, as well. Even after his passing, the Bakers continued to attend practice and games. One by one, and sometimes in small groups, teammates would approach them just to hug them or to grieve with them. Jim and Karen were quick to share their contact info and open up lines of communication as teammates processed. The players called, a few of them speaking with the Bakers for hours and strong, healthy relationships began to form.
“Another thing we realized very early on is that so many of these young men are feeling the same pressures—whether academic, financial, career or relationship,” Karen says, “and they’re afraid to open up.”
“They underestimate how much people in their lives care and want to help,” Jim says. “It’s actually a gift to give someone an opportunity to help you and feel useful.”
The Bakers started to see that while counseling and professional help can be invaluable, equally critical are the organic support systems we build with the connections in our lives and our intentionality about checking in with—and checking on—others. One of the Jake Baker 27 Fund’s mottos is “We can lift this weight together!” When they share their story, especially with student athletes, they talk about the dynamic of a weightlifter and a “spotter.” A spotter keeps a weightlifter safe by being there to catch or intervene if the weight becomes too much.
“Everyone needs ‘spotters’ in their lives,” Jim says. “We’ve developed talks and are starting to envision programs that help people share their burdens and build up that all-important ‘support system infrastructure.’”
This is the mission of the Jake Baker 27 Fund. “27” comes from the player number Jake received at Slippery Rock—a number significant to him because the 27-yard line had been marked to honor Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino at Jake’s State Championship game.
So far, the Bakers have focused a lot of their efforts around high school and college athletics.
People aren’t always sensitive enough, they say, to the pressures the students are facing, both on and off the field and they particularly appreciate the opportunity to get coaches involved in support-system building. Another reason for their youth focus, Karen says, is because the age group is particularly vulnerable.
“Young people haven’t lived enough yet to know that dark and difficult seasons eventually end,” she says.
As a police officer, Jim has taken his story and experience to law enforcement and first responders. These are other vulnerable groups that carry a lot day-to-day and often struggle to seek help, build relationships and reach out. Both Jim and Karen say that these talks and engagements—even as sharing can be emotional and challenging—have been very rewarding. The number of people who’ve expressed feeling seen or being given permission to share after hearing about the Bakers and Jake continues to grow every day.
Eventually, Jim and Karen say, they’d like to use the resources collected by the Fund to help launch outdoor retreats, such as camping and fishing experiences, to create space for real-life connections to form (Jake loved to fish).
“One thing players say to us,” Karen says, “is that they want time and space to connect and bond with each other. It’s particularly important to get people engaging in person and off of their phones.”
The Jake Baker 27 Fund plans to work with local Parks & Recreation organizations to design these retreats that schools and colleges can opt in to. For now, they continue with speaking engagements, workshops and handing out merch that exhibits Jake’s drawings (his lighthouse portrait is significant) and reminds people that they are never alone.
The last element of the Jake Baker 27 project currently in the works is the restoration of Jake’s beloved 1993 Ford Ranger pickup truck, which will become a showpiece vehicle with lights, logos and signature colors. The Bakers plan to park the Ranger at events to draw attention and get people talking about the mission. Jake worked on it constantly and took pride in it, and it often made the four-hour trip with him to Slippery Rock.
Jim and Karen encourage anyone and everyone touched by Jake’s story and their mission to get involved at jakebaker27.org. You can follow the Jake Baker 27 Fund on Instagram at @jakebaker_27 or reach out via email at jakebaker27.org@gmail.com. As the Fund and organization scales up, the Bakers will welcome ambassadors and volunteers.
Finally, the Bakers know that the most important person cheering on their mission to help others build relational support is Jake himself. Karen testifies to the number of signs and “coincidences” which have proved that Jake is still with them, smiling down—not least of which has been the discovery, during the Ford Ranger restoration process, that rattling inside the dashboard was exactly 27 cents.
We realized immediately that we wanted to be vulnerable with others and to share Jake’s story. It’s the only way we’ll be able to create change.