A Citrus College counselor is set to embark on a 45-day bike journey from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida, starting in March 2025.
Citrus alumnus and now counselor for nine years, Anthony Giammalva, will be biking in support of the Tourette Association of America. However, what makes this ride extra special for him is that he himself was diagnosed with Tourette’s.
“I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome in elementary school,” Giammalva said. “For the longest time I have wanted to do something to raise money and awareness.”
He said this got him to thinking as he had always been athletic, which then led him to the idea of cycling, as he had always loved the activity.
“About five years ago I had the idea to cycle across the country,” Giammalva said.
Three-and-a-half years later, this led to him to purchase a specialized Roubaix road bike, the one he still has today and will be completing the cycle with.
“There’s nothing too special about it, I just needed something that would last and something that durable, and I like the look of it too,” he said.
Even though there may be nothing so special about the bike, what Giammalva plans to do with it is. In addition to biking nearly 3,000 miles, he plans to cover his bike with names of people and friends who have been diagnosed with Tourette’s.
Giammalva said he plans to get the majority of the names from the Tourette Associations’ Instagram account as well. He said he also plans to promote the names on his biking Instagram.
“Every day I’m going to designate a day for one person,” Giammalva said about his cross country ride. “Every day I’m going to post about that one person and dedicate that day to the individual.”
Along with planning to post about an individual each day, he said he hopes to grow his Instagram account along the way to help garner attention for his ride.
One way that Giammalva is actively trying to raise his follower count is by biking a mile for each new follower.
“Every week I have a challenge where I say however many followers I get from this week till next Friday, that’s how many miles I cycle,” he said.
These videos are released every Friday and can also be found on his Instagram account.
In addition to growing his following, Giammalva has done multiple fundraisers to help with his ride.
One person that Giammalva wished to shoutout was Tracy Lopez, owner of Active 7 Fitness.
Lopez first saw Giammalva on Instagram and offered him a class to fundraise.
“We did a workout class … we did a hour-and-a-half workout and all the proceeds went to him,” she said. “I am super excited for Anthony. I love hyping people up, helping them on their journey and I’m just excited to see where he goes from here.”
Giammalva said that with all his new followers and attention, he aims to raise $20,000 for the Tourette Association of America.
“I never put pressure on anyone to donate,” he said. “I know times are tough for some people. But the Tourettes Syndrome Association headquarters out in New York set up a GiveGab account, like a GoFundMe.”
The link to Giammalva’s GiveGab account can be found here. He has raised $2,688, 13% of his goal.
Giammalva is an International Student Center Counselor and many colleagues are excited for his ride. One of those is the supervisor of the International Student Center Coe Lamoureux.
Lamoureux said he admires Giammalva’s dedication toward his ride and thinks it’s for a great cause.
“We are really proud of him,” Lamoureux said. “Just stay on task and he’s going to make a lot of people proud and do some great things.”
