About

I am Gina Bargiachi, a 23 year old native citizen of Memphis, TN. I recently graduated with a B.A. in Studio Art with concentrations in visual design and photography at the University of Arkansas, go Hogs! After 4 years competing for the Razorback Swimming and Diving team as a sprint freestyle and backstroke specialist, I completed my eligibility and soon thereafter began cycling.
I am constantly setting new goals for myself. In the first month of cycling I had already done my first half century ride and within 2 months I finished my first metric century ride, but my ultimate goal is a cross country tour. I was looking for different ways to complete my goal and stumbled upon Bike and Build’s website. As I read more and more about the program I got increasingly more excited.
While competing for Arkansas I was a member of the Leadership Academy and our Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and became one of two Arkansas representatives for Student Athletes Leading Social Change (SALSC), which raises money and sends student athletes to third world countries to build affordable housing. My senior year was the first year of SALSC’s and Arkansas’ relationship. We were not able to send any athletes to Ecuador in our first year, but I hope the relationship has been established and my alma mater will be able to send many student athletes in the future. Also, as a member of the Razorback SAAC I was lucky enough to volunteer with many different programs through our athletic department. I helped organize the “Together We Can” SEC canned food drive, “Lift Up America” (a program that donates hundreds of thousands of pounds of proteins to food pantries), “Shop with SAAC” (we collected donations and then used the money to shop for toys with underprivileged children at Toys-R-Us during the holiday season), “Book Hogs” (a program that speaks to elementary schools on the importance of reading), and “Sweat Hogs (a physical education program that is geared towards elementary school children).
In my hometown of Memphis, TN there are many issues with affordable housing. Memphis has previously been ranked as America’s most violent city and as an initiative to reduce or eliminate the crime problems, many affordable housing communities were demolished. Unfortunately, all that was accomplished was a decentralization of violent crimes, not a reduction or elimination. Now, Memphis is faced with little affordable housing and a poverty level well above the state average. Many people depend upon the kindness of others to simply get through each day. My biggest goal in this whole process is to inspire others to join in on affordable housing efforts
I cannot wait to ride my bike from coast to coast in a short ten weeks and to help so many other people along the way. I truly believe this could be a life altering experience for me. It will be an extreme mental and physical challenge, but to complete such a feat would be amazing. My biggest inspiration in everything I do is my grandpa, John LaVelle. He passed away early Christmas morning of 2010 and became my guardian angel that same day. He was always telling me to believe in myself, and that I could do whatever it was that I truly put my mind to doing. He was an amazing example of how a person should be to not only me, but my entire family and his friends, and I want to dedicate my efforts to him. I want to show my Grampa that I really do believe in myself.