You can take the girl out of Manhattan, but you can never take Manhattan out of the girl. This is true of so many displaced New Yorkers but it’s especially true of our Sheila Davis. Although she’s lived in Florida since the early 80’s, you can still hear that distinct New York accent that’s music to the ears of many ex-New Yorkers. Sheila is also the quintessential free spirit. She was born in the Bronx, grew up in Queens and then moved to Manhattan for a few years. She even lived on Fire Island for two summers. “I came to Florida to get away from the cold. We were driving down on U.S. 1, spotted the lighthouse, and became immediately smitten with Jupiter.”
Sheila worked as a real estate agent, travel agent, and junior high school Spanish teacher before retiring to Jupiter where her friend Barbara was living. She became obsessed –her word – with tennis and played it non-stop. She made lots of friends, but we can thank Barbara for inspiring Sheila to begin volunteering at El Sol. “
I came to El Sol for an event, and thought this was a wonderful place that was really touching a lot of lives. This is such a worthy organization; so good for the people and the community.”
Sheila is 80 and going strong. She has two sons, two grandsons and two great grandchildren, a boy and a girl. She recently returned from an extended trip to Ireland and says travel is one of her favorite hobbies. She also enjoys quilting and expressing herself through art. Her medium is wood cutting. Aside from El Sol, she also volunteers as a docent at the turtle museum in Juno and is a docent-in-training at the Norton. She has a part-time job at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, and plays Mahjong once a week. It’s safe to assume Sheila Davis is a busy lady.
Sheila brings her wisdom, wit, humor, humility and generosity to El Sol twice a week where she volunteers at the Employer Desk.