Some of the best summers of Marc Grano’s life growing up in Las Vegas, N.M., were spent on two wheels.
Grano, now a 53-year-old lawyer in Las Vegas, hasn’t forgotten how getting a bicycle afforded him his first taste of freedom and independence as a child. He said he suspects it’s still the same for kids today, which is why for the past several years he has organized an annual bike giveaway program for children throughout Northern and Central New Mexico through his law firm, Grano Law Offices.
The program, now in its seventh year, will accept entries through May 31. Children age 10 and younger can enter a drawing to win one of 10 bikes that will be given away to residents of the area Grano’s office serves, including Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Española, Rio Rancho, Mora and Taos, along with surrounding counties.
Since launching the giveaway in 2020, Grano said he has given away more than 80 bikes to children in the region, including two in Santa Fe.
“This started during the time of COVID,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot to do, so me and my wife used to go for walks along the [Gallinas] River, and we’d see all these kids on their bikes. That gave me the idea for this.”
In the program’s first year, Grano said he received only 14 entries, and he wound up buying bikes for everyone who entered.
“I thought, ‘How do you choose 10 and not do the other four?’ ” he said.
Grano routinely bought extra bikes during the first couple of years of the program, when the number of applications reached 20 to 25 a year. But over time, as word about the program has gotten out, the number of entries has grown. Grano said that has led him to lower eligibility from age 12 to 10.
Even so, last year, he received nearly 100 entries, he said.
Grano said he used to determine winners by asking entrants to write a short essay nominating a child they knew and explaining why they would be a deserving recipient. But he found that filtered out too many folks who weren’t comfortable with their writing skills, so he changed the process to a simple entry format.
“Now, it’s a drawing,” he said.
To enter, visit the Grano Law Office Facebook or Instagram pages, “like” the 2026 giveaway announcement post, share the post to your personal feed and tag two friends in the comments section.
Participants also may enter by visiting granolaw.com, clicking on the Bikes for New Mexico Kids Giveaway banner and completing a short form.
The winners will be chosen on June 3. Grano said they are notified by his staff, and a day will be set aside, usually on a weekend, when the families can come by his office and pick up their bike.
Grano said his entire staff helps run the program, which has become a widely anticipated annual event at his practice.
“It fills my heart every year,” Grano said, noting his own children are 9 and 10, and come to the office on the day the bikes are given away each year to help. “They get so excited, you would think they were the ones getting the bikes.”
