Cary Graham
Cary Graham pic1
This week’s East Nasty of the Week needs to be congratulated for two reasons. For starters, he is the first person (directly from the group) to be given the title of East Nast of Week since August 6th! The second (and much more important bit of information) is that Cary is now engaged to former ENOW Christy Maynard!!! So let’s get to know the lucky man.
Cary is one of those rare people who was born and raised right here in Nashville. Growing up he did the usual kid stuff, you know… riding bikes, playing video games, playing backyard football and so on. His sport of choice though was basketball. During his senior year of high school, Cary and his team won the state championship, and he made both the all-district and all-state teams. Basically he was Nashville’s version of Jimmy Chitwood from the movie Hoosiers. In college at Austin Peay State University, Cary majored in English, which helped him to land a job for a publishing company post graduation. He also received an MBA from Trevecca Nazarene University.
After graduate school Cary decided to start a non-profit organization to help support African leaders doing work in their own communities throughout the continent. The organization, Pray with Africa, raised awareness on college campuses for the need to build a community of support for African Christians, and they also traveled to Liberia, Malawi, and Uganda to meet these leaders and establish connections.
Cary came to East Nasty through the invite of yours truly. We had a couple of mutual friends, and after a dinner party last fall at our friend’s house, he came out to run with the group. Since then we both have forsaken our former friends in lieu of spending a majority of our time with fellow East Nasties, but it has been worth it! Early on Cary began training with Ian White, Erica Tober, and Matt Wright, and once it came time for the 2010 Country Music Half Marathon it was no surprise to him that he set his PR by 10 minutes. He also heads up a collection and distribution used shoe program for our group. The goal is to collect used running shoes, clean them up, and hand them out to schools in the area who have a need for better running shoes.
Cary is also a gifted writer, and typically in his free time you can find him typing out words behind a computer screen. He is in the process of finishing his second manuscript (novel), which is always a massive accomplishment. And speaking of accomplishments, the big one is Cary’s life right now is getting engaged to Christy. The happy couple is getting married soon, so be sure to give the two of them a big congratulations!!!
We are all so excited for the two of you!
christy and cary