Friday, October 2, 2026
Cloudy, 69°Wind: mph,
Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
The annual Southwest Disposal effort to get new bikes in the hands of Las Cruces youth took a new twist in 2025. In partnership with a Las Cruces Public School District initiative, Safe Routes to School, SW Disposal put 178 new bikes in the hands of local school children Saturday, Dec. 13.
Every year, SW Disposal fundraises within the community to purchase new bicycles and this year they were able to raise $5,500. Their corporate office matched that amount, giving it $11,000 to buy bikes. They usually do a mad dash on black Friday to purchase bikes from Walmart.
This year they were able to purchase a record breaking 178 bicycles. Safe Routes to School has been partnering with them since 2017, and this is the most bikes by nearly double the average.
In past years Safe Routes has chosen schools, who then identify students in need, and it has gone school to school to deliver the bikes during an assembly (usually hitting five or six schools). This year they took a different approach with so many bikes to give away.
Every second and third grade student in the district had the opportunity to write about why they like to ride bikes or why they would like to ride a bike if they have one. The selected winners (proportionate to the number of students enrolled) from all 25 LCPS elementary schools were invited to receive a bike.
SRTS staff gathered volunteers from the bike community and teamed up with SW Disposal to assemble the 178 bikes. With about 20 people working, it took about two hours.
On Dec. 13, they held two assemblies to congratulate the winners, thank the donors and volunteers, and fit helmets (provided by SRTS) to every single head. After helmets were fit, students were able to participate in a Learn to Ride clinic, or ride in the bike rodeo outside.
They also had the opportunity to get their tires filled with "slime" to help prevent flats from goat heads.
Every Body Rides with Grace, one of the organizers, also was able to gift an adaptive cycle to a student in our community with special needs.
In total, partners included SW Disposal, Safe Routes to School (a program within LCPS that encourages students to walk and ride their bikes to school safely), Lynn Community Middle School, Velo Cruces' Hub Community Bike Shop, Every Body Rides with Grace, The Optimist Club and many members of the bicycle community.
