Davis Education Foundation -

Eight Buses, One Mountain, and a Trail Full of New Friends

On a crisp February morning, eight school buses wound their way up Big Cottonwood Canyon and pulled into Solitude Mountain Resort's Nordic Center. More than 250 Davis School District elementary students stepped off those buses and into snowshoes — and spent the next several hours trekking the Silver Lake Loop side by side through trees, open fields, and uneven snowy terrain.

The February 26 event brought together students from eight DSD elementary schools as part of an effort to extend Unified Sports into younger grades — and the Wasatch Mountains provided a fitting backdrop for everything the program stands for.

What Unified Sports Is Really About

Unified Sports is built on a simple but powerful idea: when students with and without intellectual disabilities share the same experience as genuine teammates, something lasting happens. The program pairs buddies of similar age and ability, not to accommodate one student for the sake of another, but to create real friendships grounded in real shared effort.

On the trail, that looked like buddies cheering each other up icy inclines, waiting at switchbacks, and celebrating together at the top. It looked like new connections being made at 8,000 feet — the kind that don't end when the bus pulls back into the valley.

Shared experiences, meaningful involvement, and friendships that last beyond the activity — that's the goal every time these students lace up together.

Taking Unified Sports to the Elementary Level

Unified Sports has long been a part of secondary school programming across Davis School District, but this event was part of a deliberate push to bring the program's core values — inclusion, friendship, and shared challenge — into elementary schools. Getting younger students involved means those values take root earlier, and the relationships that form on a snowy trail in February can carry forward through years of school together.

For many of the students, this was their first time snowshoeing. Navigating the Silver Lake Loop's mix of forested paths and open snowy fields was a genuine challenge — and that was the point. Working through something hard together, with a buddy by your side, is exactly the kind of experience Unified Sports is built to create.

See It for Yourself

Local media joined the students on the mountain, and the Davis School District captured the day on video as well. Both are worth watching.

On the trail, buddies trekked side by side through trees, fields, and uneven terrain — cheering each other on and forming new connections at the top of the Wasatch.

Made Possible by Friends of the Foundation

Events like this don't happen without people who believe in what's possible for kids. This day on the mountain was made possible by private donors who are great friends of the Davis Education Foundation — they know who they are, and we are deeply grateful. Their generosity put 250 students on snowshoes, on a trail, and alongside a new friend.

The Davis Education Foundation exists to expand access to experiences that shape whole students — not just their test scores, but their sense of belonging, confidence, and connection to the people around them. A snowy loop through the Wasatch in February, shared with a buddy, is exactly that kind of experience. We can't wait to do it again.