A native of Sun Valley, Idaho, Muffy Davis (seen above balancing near the rim of the Fox River Gorge in Namibia) injured her spine while training at Olympic ski racing during high school.
Davis and husband Jeff ride
an elephant in Thailand. |
After graduating valedictorian in her class and while continuing her studies at Stanford University, Davis discovered adaptive skiing, and she was off and racing again-and winning medals at Nagano and Salt Lake City and World Cup titles in Switzerland multiple years in a row.
Davis has also long been involved in community service. She won an award for her community work from the Stanford Alumni Association in 1995. She has since been recognized by numerous organizations, including the Make a Wish foundation, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Utah MS Society and the International Olympic Committee for both her athletics and her civic achievements.
In 2005, Muffy and her husband Jeff bought a pair of round the world tickets and headed off for fun and adventure in countries they’d always wanted to see.
“Three bags, two people and one wheelchair,” Muffy says on her Website (www.muffydavis.com). “We set off for nine months to 12 different countries in hopes of sharing, learning, teaching adaptive sports, adventure and increasing our knowledge and understanding of the status of people with disabilities throughout the world. . . .Of course it wasn’t all work, we found plenty of time to play on this journey as well.”
Turkey “We volunteered for one month with the Alternative Camp in Turkey, an organization we discovered through Volunteers for Peace. The Alternative Camp is an organization that provides camp and sporting activities to Turkish People with Disabilities.”
South Africa/Namibia “We took some time to just travel and play in South Africa and Namibia, did a couple of safaris, lots of camping and I even got the chance to pet Joshua, a cheetah at the Cheetah Refuge in Stellenbosch, South Africa.”
Ghana “We spent 10 days volunteering in Ghana with the International Humanitarian Organization, Right to Play, of which I am an Athlete Ambassador. We had the opportunity to play basketball with kids from the Street Academy, a nonprofit organization in Accra, Ghana that enables kids who would otherwise not have the opportunity, the ability to obtain an education. Additionally, we were able to meet and play with orphans and kids in the local SOS Children’s Village, pushing me around was the play for the day!”
Vietnam “We spent two weeks volunteering with Peace Trees Vietnam, a nonprofit organization that removes land mines and unexploded ordinances and replaces them with trees and new friendship villages. While we were there were able to attend the dedication of a new kindergarten that Peace Trees was able to build on a former land mine field. The kids were amazing, they were all very curious about me and my wheelchair.”
