STILLWATER, Minn. — When Officer Kevin Graving retired from the Marine Corps after 22 years of active duty service that took his family to several states and countries, his wife, Kacie, was eager to return to her roots and grow a business that she spent years putting on hold.
"I've been in the fitness industry for a long time but when I married my husband, he kind of took me away to many different places because of his deployments as a Marine Corps Intelligence Officer," Kacie Graving said. "So when he finally retired, he handed me the baton and told me it was my turn to do what I love and to give back."
Graving knew that would involve helping other women feel empowered in their bodies through weight training, something she began to do out of her family's garage before moving back to Minnesota.
"A lot of the women I trained had husbands who were deployed and so we were in a military community there and I just loved helping empower women," Kacie Graving said. "I love teaching strength training as a tool to do hard things so that things become easier in life. You know, we become more resilient in the gym but also in everyday life."
Opening that kind of space in Stillwater took a few months of resilience for both Kacie and Kevin. The Gravings spent months renovating the basement of Stillwater's historic Armory building, turning it into The Underground Strength Training Gym for Women.
Kacie said it's a thrill to be doing what she loves in her hometown, inside the former home of the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division of Minnesota.
"We had a lot of work to do but it's just extra special to us because I'm coaching women out of there, but it also has kind of a rich history of getting (people) ready to go serve," Kacie said. "So it's pretty special."