Christian Gray is having a good week.
At Caledonia High School on Monday he sat with his fellow seniors and listened to a used car salesman speak.
Allen Jones told the group how he has given a gently used car to a graduating CHS senior since 2008. He requires the student be someone of good character and good academic standing who is college bound but financially limited. Students who want a chance at the car can submit an essay to Jones. This year, Gray wrote one.
On Monday, the seniors listened to Jones talk about who he had chosen to give this year’s car to.
“Once he said ‘He’ I had a feeling it would be me,” Gray said afterward. “When he said ‘Sacrifice,’ I knew it was me.”
When Jones called Gray’s name, the tall, soft-spoken young man said he walked to the front of the room but couldn’t hear anything. He had just got a free car, after all.
The white 2013 Chevrolet Malibu is Gray’s, but it isn’t exactly free.
Jones requires the winners be enrolled in 12 credit hours each semester and maintain a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average to keep the car. When the student graduates from college, Jones signs over the deed and the car is officially theirs. Jones has had to take the car back once, when a young woman called him in tears saying her GPA had slipped to a 1.7. He said he hated doing it, but had to hold firm to the rules.
“This is about providing a gift we can give that will allow a student to pursue their dream of going to college,” Jones said.
Tuesday afternoon Gray went to Jones’ car lot to pick up the Malibu. He was all smiles. His older brother, Kadeem Gray, 21, drove him to the lot in the Honda Accord he used to loan Christian from time to time. That won’t be necessary anymore.
“I guess I’ll go fill it up for him,” Kadeem Gray laughed.
Christian Gray was the first young man to win Jones’ car. In the past, the winners have been exclusively young women.
In his essay, he said that a car would help him in college by allowing him to work a job while taking courses and enabling him to support himself. He wrote that the car would most importantly allow him to ease the stress of his mother. Gray is the middle child of three brothers — his mother is a single parent. He said he has always wanted to ease her burden, and that having a car and being able to transport himself would lift a great deal of stress from her.
Gray plans to begin his studies at East Mississippi Community College, where he intends to study criminal justice. He said his goal is transfer to a major college and earn a degree in forensics.
“I have worked hard to make it to graduation and make my mother proud because I seldom give up on anything,” Gray wrote in his essay. “I always keep myself motivated to be better than I was yesterday. I have learned that when life knocks you down, you can either get up or stay down. I refuse to let anything stand in the way of me achieving my goals in life.”
Sitting behind the wheel of his new car, Gray is already on the road to achieving his dreams.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 29 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
