Families find benefits outweigh challenges of living on Longboat Key

The town of Longboat Key has a median age of 71, but pockets of young parents and their children have made the Key their home despite the challenges for education and extracurriculars that entails. 

According to the latest census data, Longboat Key’s population is 7,574, with 67.1% of that population being individuals 65 years of age or older. In 2023, the World Population Review found that the median age was 71.1. 

This year, Town Manager Howard Tipton said the number of school-aged students living in the Manatee County portion of Longboat is 42. In Sarasota County, that number is 43.

Although there are no schools on the Key, two families relocated to Longboat with their young children and now live on the north end of the island. They've found that with some creative organization the benefits of the community and its intergenerational network outweigh the challenges.

Closer to school

Moving to Longboat Key, Heather and Todd Rippy heard that families had difficulty living on the island. 

After moving from Oklahoma to Sarasota with their two daughters Bliss and Lark seven years ago the Rippys lived in Sarasota for four years. Three years ago they moved to Longboat Key. Shortly after the move, Heather opened Driftwood Beach Home & Garden, a gift and clothing shop located at Whitney Beach Plaza. 

While living in Sarasota, Bliss and Lark attended St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton. The commute from Sarasota to Bradenton was longer than the commute Bliss has to Anna Maria Elementary now. Bliss is 11 years old and going into fifth grade. 

“This is the closest they’ve ever lived to school,” Heather Rippy said. 

Every morning during the school year, Heather drives Bliss to Anna Maria Elementary. It usually takes about 15 minutes. Coming home, Bliss takes the bus since Heather is running the shop and Todd works in Bradenton. 

Kids coming home to Longboat from Anna Maria Elementary are usually one of the last stops, so the ride takes anywhere from a half-hour to a little over an hour, depending on traffic. 

“I felt like the benefits outweighed any sort of commute issue,” Heather Rippy said.

Lark, 13, doesn’t have a commute like her sister. She attends a virtual Montessori school. 

It isn’t like conventional homeschool, Lark said. Rather than being given assignments to do on her own time, Lark gets to talk with teachers — called “guides” — and her friends who live all over the world, from the Cayman Islands to Canada. 

Heather Rippy said Lark has always been self-motivated, and the family chose this type of schooling because she has more authority to choose what she wants to learn. 

In-person motivation

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Jill and Joshua Ball wanted their children, Ruthie and David, to be able to get face-to-face time in a classroom. They also wanted to live in an area where there was more to do outside. At the time, Florida had fewer pandemic restrictions than New York.

Jill and Joshua decided to move the family from Buffalo to Longboat in 2021. Jill had been vacationing on Longboat since she was a child, a tradition that Joshua became a part of.  For the first six months, they lived in a rental condo, before settling into their permanent home on the north end. 

“That was a big piece as to why we moved down here,” Jill Ball said. “School was a big part of it.”

The family moved to Longboat when Ruthie, now 7 years old, was about to start school. She attends Anna Maria Elementary.

David, 4, goes to the School for Constructive Play on Anna Maria Island, which is a small preschool, mostly “word of mouth,” according to Jill. 

The biggest challenge, Jill and Joshua said, is going north during the season. Jill operates the same as Heather, dropping Ruthie off in the morning and having her take the bus on the way home. 

Ruthie said she falls asleep a lot on the bus ride home.

She starts second grade this week at Anna Maria Elementary and enjoys reading the most. Graphic novels, specifically, are her favorite. 

In a few years, the family’s biggest challenge will be deciding where Ruthie will go to middle school. Jill and Joshua said she could go to St. Stephen’s in Bradenton, or they may look into virtual schooling. 

Extracurriculars, near and far

The cabinet door to the left of the oven in the Balls' home holds Ruthie’s “hall of fame": a picture of her with a gold star background and an article from the AMI Sun spotlighting her soccer team at The Center of Anna Maria Island. 

Aside from soccer, Ruthie and David enjoy gymnastics classes in Sarasota and taking walks to the beach. Ruthie snorkels the waters of Longboat Key often, finding treasures like sand dollars. 

“We’re outside way more than we were in Buffalo,” Jill said. 

Bliss Rippy also plays soccer at The Center of Anna Maria Island. She and her sister Lark enjoy art-focused extracurriculars, as well. Some of those require going into Sarasota, like the youth opera group that Lark is a part of.

“The only thing that can be hard living on Longboat is when we go do extracurriculars,” Lark said. 

Bliss recently became very interested in pottery, and wants to look into taking some classes at a pottery studio, also in Sarasota. 

Neighborhood network

The Rippy kids have fun making art with their neighbors. Heather said the girls have become friends with neighbors who are older, by as much as 80 years. 

Lark said she learned oil painting from one of her neighbors, who also has some pieces in Rippy’s store. On top of that, Lark practices weaving and sewing, some of which she does with her elderly friends. 

Photo by Carter Weinhofer

Ruthie Ball also likes making friends with the older people in their neighborhood, and Jill said they often invite some of them to walk on the beach. 

Living in the north end neighborhood allows the children to be outside more, both families said. It’s easy to walk across the street to the beach.

Bliss Rippy joked about how long it takes them to walk to the beach sometimes because of how many people they stop to talk to. 

From a parent’s perspective, Heather Rippy said she feels like her kids have more independence, since she can give them more freedom in a safe neighborhood. 

The intergenerational neighborhood is something that stands out to both the Balls and Rippys. 

Jill Ball likes the older demographic, which she was aware of moving to Longboat. She said her family isn’t big into crowds, so this type of neighborhood is perfect.

Joshua Ball said when going out to eat, the older folk love to see younger generations. Halloween in the Village surprised the family — it’s more lively than they would have thought. The Village is a community on the northern edge of the island, behind Whitney Beach Plaza.

Both families learned quickly that there are pockets of younger people in Longboat Key. 

Heather Rippy said the youngest child she knows of in the neighborhood is just under a year old, and the oldest person they know of is in her 90s. 

“The Village has more kids than any other neighborhood we’ve lived in,” Heather Rippy said.

The families that live in these pockets form their own sense of community — like a community within another unique neighborhood. 

“Coming here, there are a lot of other people in our situation,” Jill Ball said. “I think a lot of other people are open to new friendships.”

Jill and Joshua said they have become best friends with Ruthie’s friends’ parents. 

“We’ve been able to make a network of friends in a pretty short time,” Joshua said. “It’s almost helpful to have kids to make friends.” 

Heather Rippy said her family has never lived in a place with a stronger sense of community, and they hope the trend of younger generations on Longboat Key continues.