When the thunderstorm rolled across Orlando’s Lake Fairview on Thursday afternoon Sept. 15, 2022, 11-year-old Langston Rodriguez-Sane was still in his trial period with a local rowing club. It was only his second week out on the water.

Langston was looking forward to his birthday on Sunday. As soon as they dropped him off to practice his new sport, his mom, Doreen Sane, and his big sister, Reese, headed out to shop for his birthday dinner.

“I will forever go back to that day when we were shopping at Walmart about how terrible the storm sounded,” Doreen Sane said. “My God, it sounded so terrible.”

On their way back to pick up Langston, Reese’s phone buzzed with a text.

“Are you okay? Yeah. Or, like, ‘Is your brother okay’ or something?” Reese Sane remembered. “And then you start to get information that something had happened, but we were told it wasn’t Langston.”

That wasn’t true. Langston’s boat, with five children rowing in open water during the storm, had been struck by lightning. He was rescued from the water and rushed to the boat house and then to a local hospital. He died there three days later, on his 12th birthday. “He had so much coming up for him and so much left to live,” said his sister, who is now 19.

“Langston was an 11-year-old, incredibly loving young man. He was a son. He was a brother. He was a friend. You know, he was an important part of our lives,” Reese said. “And he was taken from us because of negligence, because people aren’t aware of lightning safety.”

Florida, the nation’s lightning capital

Florida, the lightning capital of the United States, leads the nation in both the density of lightning strikes and deaths by lightning. Nearly all 53 victims killed by lightning in the state in the past decade were either recreating or working outdoors. Yet while Florida Statutes protect young athletes from allergy attacks, head injuries, heat illness and cardiac arrest among other threats, state laws do not govern lightning safety.

U.S. Rowing, the national governing body for the sport, offers lightning-safety procedures as a resource for coaches and administrators. The guidelines include constant weather monitoring, clear evacuation points and rules for getting boats off the water quickly when storms approach. They are meant to be adapted to each local rowing venue.

None of that, the family says, was followed by the North Orlando Rowing Club, which has since changed its name to the Orlando City Boat Club, on the day Langston and the other children were caught in the storm. A second child in the boat, 13-year-old Gavin Christman, was also killed; Orange County Sheriff’s Office marine deputies did not find his body until the following evening.

“You assume because you’re in this (organized-sport club) that things are being maintained,” Doreen Sane said. “You’re paying a premium. It’s got to be better.”

The Orlando City Boat Club did not respond to requests to comment or share its lighting-safety protocols.

When it comes to schools, Florida Statutes require Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) member schools to have emergency action plans. Orange County Public Schools passed one of the strongest lightning safety plans in the nation after a 10-year-old girl died after getting off her school bus in a storm in 2004.

However, an informal survey of school plans by WUFT indicated that many of them do not address lightning, or even storms. The FHSAA’s Emergency Action Plan Template includes blizzards but not lightning. The Florida Department of Health’s Emergency Guidelines for Schools addresses frostbite but not lightning or storms in general.

The Dallas-based software company Perry Weather, a weather-technology company that provides real-time lightning detection, automated alerts, radar tools, and countdown timers to help schools make safer decisions during storms, helps stress lightning safety policies for Florida schools in its online guide in partnership with the FHSAA. The FHSAA’s own policies focus more on heat stress given Florida lawmakers’ passage of the Zachary Martin Act in 2020 in response to a football player’s death from heatstroke.

Perry Weather posts lightning guidance from the National Federation of State High School Associations. It includes continuous weather monitoring; stopping outdoor activity as soon as thunder or lightning is detected, moving athletes to safe shelter and waiting 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder before resuming activity.

The national guidelines serve as a good common framework. But in Florida, they can be applied inconsistently depending on the school, district or club.

Trouble on the water

Langston’s mom said she assumed the club her children joined—Reese rowed with the same club—followed strict safety standards. What she learned later, she said, left her stunned.

“They had no lightning detectors or anything, so there was a big problem,” Sane said. “There was no one on the water with them either.”

Reese said it wasn’t the first time young rowers were unsafe.

“You learn in elementary school when your hair sticks up, like that’s dangerous,” Reese said. “We would go out in the water and our hair would be sticking up and they would say, this is normal.”

Lightning-safety experts said the risks in Florida are relatively high — and too-often underestimated. John Jensenius, a meteorologist who spent more than 40 years with the National Weather Service and now works with the National Lightning Safety Council, described lightning danger as a combination of “the amount of lightning, and where you are.”

He said youth sports programs may fail to take the necessary precautions—and emphasized that waiting for obvious signs of danger is too late.

“If you notice something, don’t wait. Keep an eye on the sky. Listen for any thunder,” he said. “If you see any signs of a developing or approaching storm, or if you hear thunder, you really need to get inside right away.”

Florida’s storms can be especially deceptive. According to Jensenius, a bright blue Florida sky could make it difficult for people to recognize they are in danger. Activities on water, such as boating or fishing, complicate matters further because background noise such as boat motors — or water, itself — can mask the sound of approaching thunder.

When lightning struck Langston’s boat, he was the coxswain sitting at one end. He and the boy at the opposite end, 13-year-old Gavin, both fell into the water. The three children sitting in the middle of the shell were rescued and survived without serious injuries.

Jensenius said water-based leisure activities make up the nation’s three highest lightning risks: Fishing, with 9% of deaths; the beach, with 7% of deaths; and boating, with 5%.

“All of those take extra time to get to a safe place,” he said.

Experts also stress that sports organizations must get actively involved in lightning safety education. The National Lightning Safety Council partners with programs like Little League Baseball to teach players and coaches about the risks.

Lessons never taught, now learned

According to Reese, she and Langston were never introduced to any lightning-safety resources.

“I never was taught that safety class,” she said. “Langston was never taught that safety class.”

Langston’s death underscores a gap between awareness, assumptions and action. Liability concerns have helped drive improvements, Jensenius said, but challenges remain.

Doreen Sane filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the rowing club, the property owner and the U.S. Rowing Association, alleging North Orlando Rowing Club did not have weather-alert devices or a working defibrillator on the day of the tragedy. Although the case was settled, she said no money can bring her son back.

For the family, lightning safety is no longer abstract.

“Now I have such respect for lightning warnings,” Sane said. “You just think it could never happen to you. Especially as Floridians — you just see lightning all the time, and it never strikes you.”

Her daughter stressed the importance of telling Langston’s and other victims’ stories.

“You think they’ll be fine because you’ve seen survival stories,” Reese said. “But you don’t hear enough death stories to understand the full gravity of this. Somebody you love can be taken like that by something you can’t control — and you could have controlled it by not being outside.”

According to Bobbi Gearheart, leader of the Williamsburg Horse Show Club, the move to end the club by its parent organization, the Williamsburg Community Farm Show, “was an absolute shock.”

The club, which has been in operation for more than 30 years, is a “place where kids can make mistakes and learn, and judges will talk to them and prepare them for 4-H shows,” said Julia Saintz, a horse show club volunteer.

News about the club’s end came in an email from the Farm Show president to club organizers, received at 7 a.m. on Dec. 18. The email stated that the horse committee “no longer exists nor will the area be available for horse shows in the future.”

“A group of board members presented a proposal to reimagine the area that is currently being used for the horse show,” Farm Show Board President Jeff Walason wrote in the email, apparently referencing a Dec. 12 Farm Show board meeting.

The Williamsburg Horse Show Club ring sits north of the Williamsburg Community varsity softball field which lies between the ring and the Williamsburg Farm Show building.
Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Multiple calls to Walason by the Mirror and by horse club members have not been returned.

Despite Walason urging recipients of the letter not to share the message on social media, horse club members created a Facebook page — Saving the Williamsburg Horse Activities! — which has garnered over 150 members and multiple posts urging the Farm Show to reconsider their decision.

“Williamsburg has long been one of my favorite venues to show at,” Stefanie Swindell Strayer commented on the page. “Having competed there for many years, it’s so disappointing to see an opportunity like this taken away from those who enjoy showing, especially the next generation of young riders.”

A post by Mark O’Neill notes that “everybody starts somewhere like Williamsburg. With fewer and fewer Williamsburgs, the future is not bright for the industry. The local show must be preserved.”

Another post takes aim at the Farm Show board.

“This is a very short-sighted decision by people that have ‘community’ in their name,” stated Norma Horton, who said she has been attending the shows for 20 years.

“People complain about kids getting in trouble, yet they want to take away a place that gives them something to enjoy and spend time,” she wrote.

A change.org petition received 500 signatures in less than 24 hours, and by Tuesday afternoon, more than 700 had signed onto the petition to Reinstate the Williamsburg Horse Show.

The board’s decision “not only impacts the long-standing tradition of our families but also denies future generations the chance to experience the extraordinary benefits that these shows provide,” the petition states.

“To me, Williamsburg has never been just a horse show,” Swindell Strayer told the Mirror. “It’s a community. … It’s where memories are made, families are supported, and generations of horsemen and women are given the chance to learn, grow and succeed together.”

“It’s very generational, and it’s sad to see 30 years dismissed without a word and a warning,” Saintz said.

Locked out

In the email, Walason said “all keys are expected to be returned to the buildings or a fee will be charged to the group for rekeying the main building should the key not be returned.”

According to Gearhart, the club has already been locked out, something she discovered when she went to collect club belongings.

Many “No Trespassing” signs were placed around the horse ring and nearby trees, she said.

As a “self-sufficient” club, their riding equipment, speakers, announcing equipment and jumps were fully funded by community fundraisers, Gearhart said, but the farm show believes otherwise.

“We worked really hard to buy that stuff,” she said.

Gearhart also found that the club’s Facebook profile disappeared after the farm show became a Facebook business page in early December, thus negating Gearhart’s Facebook administration rights.

Walason’s email stated that the club’s Facebook page “will remain until a determination is made concerning the banquet, at that point an announcement will be made and the page will be taken down.”

The page stored more than 20 years’ worth of memories from dedicated riders, Gearhart said.

“It’s a labor of love,” she said, “and to see it ripped out from under you is devastating.”

Future plans

According to Gearhart, the farm show plans on replacing the horse ring with a tractor pull area, which would allegedly bring in more money to help support the farm show. She said a tractor pull lane has already been built behind the softball field, which is between the farm show buildings and the horse ring. This year was the farm show’s second year using the tractor pull area, she said.

Gearhart said she is not against the farm show adding a larger tractor pull area, and believes there is room for both events on the farm show grounds, which are leased from Catharine Township.

“I would like for us to come to an agreement,” she said, hoping that the horse show club can continue while expanding on the original tractor pull area behind the softball field.

In the club’s defense, Gearhart said it is not “falling apart. … It’s growing and thriving.”

Other than spreading the word, Gearhart said club volunteers and members are participating in a lot of “ground stomping” by calling local politicians and encouraging the public to attend the farm show board meeting slated for 7 p.m. Jan 2 at the Williamsburg Farm Show building, 1019 Recreation Drive, Williamsburg.

Saintz wants people to support the horse show, as young riders learn work ethic, sportsmanship and stress management from the club and their competitions.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414

Detroit Edison alumna Rickea Jackson remembered a conversation she had with her school superintendent, Ralph Bland, in 2017.

“This is something that before we won our first state championship, I talked to Mr. Bland, like, ‘you know if we win a state championship, we need to retire my jersey,'” Jackson said. “And then we went on to win two more.”

BRAD HARRISON/Staff An exciting season of Jones County Parks & Recreation youth basketball is off and rolling with ongoing play in a total of five divisions with fundamentals and more being mixed in with the fun of the game. The season for all leagues runs into February with games being played at the Jones County Government Center Gym….

CORRECTS FIRST NAME TO DIANE – Diane West and her grandson Paul Quirk pose for a photo, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The oldest baby boomers — once the vanguard of an American youth that revolutionized U.S. culture and politics — turn 80 in 2026.
The generation that twirled the first plastic hula hoops and dressed up the first Barbie dolls, embraced the TV age, blissed out at Woodstock and protested and fought in the Vietnam War — the cohort that didn’t trust anyone over age 30 — now is contributing to the overall aging of America.
Boomers becoming octogenarians in 2026 include actor Henry Winkler and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, singers Cher and Dolly Parton and presidents Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The aging and shrinking youth of America
America’s population swelled with around 76 million births from 1946 to 1964, a spike magnified by couples reuniting after World War Two and enjoying postwar prosperity.
Boomers were better educated and richer than previous generations, and they helped grow a consumer-driven economy. In their youth, they pushed for social change through the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s rights movement and efforts to end the Vietnam War.
“We had rock ‘n’ roll. We were the first generation to get out and demonstrate in the streets. We were the first generation, that was, you know, a socially conscious generation,” said Diane West, a metro Atlanta resident who turns 80 in January. “Our parents played by the rules. We didn’t necessarily play by the rules, and there were lots of us.”
As they got older they became known as the “me” generation, a pejorative term coined by writer Tom Wolfe to reflect what some regarded as their self-absorption and consumerism.
“The thing about baby boomers is they’ve always had a spotlight on them, no matter what age they were,” Brookings demographer William Frey said. “They were a big generation, but they also did important things.”
By the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and the number of people 80 and over will double in 20 years, Frey said.
The share of senior citizens in the U.S. population is projected to grow from 18.7% in 2025 to nearly 23% by 2050, while children under 18 decline from almost 21% to a projected 18.4%.
Without any immigration, the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years. That’s when deaths will surpass births, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, which were revised in September to account for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Population growth comes from immigration as well as births outpacing deaths.
The aging of America is being compounded by longer lives due to better health care and lower birth rates.
The projected average U.S. life expectancy at birth rises from 78.9 years in 2025 to 82.2 years in 2055, according to the CBO. And since the Great Recession in 2008, when the fertility rate was 2.08, around the 2.1 rate needed for children to numerically replace their parents, it has been on a steady decline, hitting 1.6 in 2025.
Younger generations miss boomer milestones
Women are having fewer children because they are better educated, they’re delaying marriage to focus on careers and they’re having their first child at a later age. Unaffordable housing, poor access to child care and the growing expenses of child-rearing also add up to fewer kids.
University of New Hampshire senior demographer Kenneth Johnson estimates that the result has been 11.8 million fewer births, compared to what might have been had the fertility rate stayed at Great Recession levels.
“I was young when I had kids. I mean that’s what we did — we got out of college, we got married and we had babies,” said West, who has two daughters, a stepdaughter and six grandchildren. “My kids got married in their 30s, so it’s very different.”
A recent Census Bureau study showed that 21st century young adults in the U.S. haven’t been adulting like baby boomers did. In 1975, almost half of 25-to-34-year-olds had moved out of their parents’ home, landed jobs, gotten married and had kids. By the early 2020s, less than a quarter of U.S. adults had hit these milestones.
West, whose 21-year-old grandson lives with her, understands why: They lack the prospects her generation enjoyed. Her grandson, Paul Quirk, said it comes down to financial instability.
“They were able to buy a lot of things, a lot cheaper,” Quirk said.
All of her grandchildren are frustrated by the economy, West added.
“You have to get three roommates in order to afford a place,” she said. “When we got out of college, we had a job waiting for us. And now, people who have master’s degrees are going to work fast food while they look for a real job.”
Implications for the economy
The aging of America could constrain economic growth. With fewer workers paying taxes, Social Security and Medicare will be under more pressure. About 34 seniors have been supported by every 100 workers in 2025, but that ratio grows to 50 seniors per 100 working-age people in about 30 years, according to estimates released last year by the White House.
When West launched her career in employee benefits and retirement planning in 1973, each 100 workers supported 20 or fewer retirees, by some calculations.
Vice President JD Vance and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among those pushing for an increase in fertility. Vance has suggested giving parents more voting power, according to their numbers of children, or following the example of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in giving low-interest loans to married parents and tax exemptions to women who have four children or more.
Frey said programs that incentivize fertility among U.S. women hardly ever work, so funding should support pre-kindergarten and paid family leave.
“I think the best you can do for people who do want to have kids is to make it easier and less expensive to have them and raise them,” he said. “Those things may not bring up the fertility rate as much as people would like, but at least the kids who are being born will have a better chance of succeeding.”

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