FORT MYERS – Laurie Martin-Giordano turned an unimaginable tragedy into a personal mission to protect high school athletes.
In 2017, her 16-year-old son Zach collapsed during a summer high school football workout at Riverdale High School. Suffering from heat stroke, his core temperature measured 107 degrees at the hospital and he slipped into a coma. Eleven days later, Zach died.
Driving home from the hospital, Martin-Giordano made a vow that would forever alter her future.
Laurie Martin-Giordano with a photo of her son, Zach, in Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. After her son died from a heat-related illness during football practice in 2017, she worked with lawmakers to introduce legislation that requires heat illness training and life-saving equipment for every Florida High School Athletic Association school. She founded the Zach Martin Memorial Foundation, which provides education, awareness, and prevention equipment for exertional heat illnesses to athletes, coaches, and parents.
“I said out loud we are not going to take a loss on him,” she said. “He had so much potential that is not going to be realized, and there are so many people who would have been positively affected by his life that are never going to know what they’ve missed out on. So we have to make that happen. And that became my guiding light through the next several years.”
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Martin-Giordano became a tireless advocate for exertional heat stroke prevention and treatment in Florida. At the time of Zach’s death, the Florida High School Athletic Association had no policies or guidelines regarding heat illness, which is 100% survivable if recognized and treated promptly. She routinely made the six-hour drive to the state capital in Tallahassee, speaking to groups of legislators about the need for a statewide law to protect high school athletes.
Three years later, on June 23, 2020, Martin-Giordano’s birthday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Zachary Martin Act, which requires heat illness training and life-saving equipment for every FHSAA member school.
“Since the Zachary Martin Act was signed into law, there’s been several kids that have gone down but we didn’t lose any of them which tells me somebody was doing the right thing,” she said.
Laurie Martin-Giordano with a photo of her son, Zach, in Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. After her son died from a heat-related illness during football practice in 2017, she worked with lawmakers to introduce legislation that requires heat illness training and life-saving equipment for every Florida High School Athletic Association school. She founded the Zach Martin Memorial Foundation, which provides education, awareness, and prevention equipment for exertional heat illnesses to athletes, coaches, and parents.
For her efforts, Martin-Giordano has been named a 2025 USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree.
Martin-Giordano continues her work through the Zach Martin Memorial Foundation, which provides education and awareness about exertional heat illnesses to athletes, coaches and parents. The foundation also donates life-saving cold water immersion tubs to high schools for use in all sports.
Martin-Giordano said parents shouldn’t be afraid to ask their children’s coaches and schools about the preventive measures they have in place.
“You are handing over your most precious possession, so no parent should feel awkward about asking those questions,” she said. “Parents need to be the gatekeeper for their kids when it comes to safety.”
For more information, visit zachmartinfoundation.com.
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(Responses have been edited for length and clarity)
Q: Can you describe how you felt when the Zach Martin Act was signed into law?
A: It still makes me tear up because there were so many emotions that were happening. The first, obviously, was joy and celebration that the state of Florida had looked at what happened to my son and several other kids and decided this was enough and they weren’t going to allow it to happen anymore.
But right on the heels of that was still the sadness and grief, because Zach was not here to to experience it. Most people only know him from what I’ve told them about him. And as every human being is, there’s so many sides to him that people will never know, and so that is always a piece of it too.
Q: How do you think Zach would feel about the dedication you showed to getting this law passed that protects high school athletes?
A: I think he would be very incredibly proud. Zach at his core was a protector from a very young age and that was what made his great at football. It made him a fantastic brother and son and a really good friend too.
As a mom, you always have that sort of Mama Bear mentality that’s always at the ready, but your kids don’t necessarily see it. And watching me work to make this law happen, I think my family and Zach especially got to witness how a Mama Bear works to make things happen.
Q: What is your definition of courage?
A: Courage is action based on beliefs and regardless of feelings.
I think a lot of people confuse courage with bravery. I had a lot of people tell me I was brave and I can tell you I was not. It wasn’t fear that I had to overcome. It was absolute pain and agony and that’s very different. I was in agony every day but I understood my voice needed to be present. It took a lot of courage to get up in the middle of the night and drive six hours for a 9 o’clock committee meeting and tell a room full of people about the absolute worst thing that has ever happened in my life.
Q: Who’s the person you look up to?
A: I can’t come up with just one person but over the past seven years the people I look up to the most are the families I’ve come in contact with who like me have lost a child. I’m in awe of them taking steps to put their lives back together and make a difference.
Watching them find that courage is a privilege to be able to see. I would rather they did not have this hard road but I’m incredibly honored to be a part of their journey.
Laurie Martin-Giordano with a photo of her son, Zach, in Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. After her son died from a heat-related illness during football practice in 2017, she worked with lawmakers to introduce legislation that requires heat illness training and life-saving equipment for every Florida High School Athletic Association school. She founded the Zach Martin Memorial Foundation, which provides education, awareness, and prevention equipment for exertional heat illnesses to athletes, coaches, and parents.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: USA TODAY Women of the Year honoree for Florida is Laurie Martin-Giordano
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