SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Art from two Michiana high school students is being showcased at two McDonald\u2019s locations as part of McDonald\u2019s Celebration of Culture and Community initiative for Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n
Twenty students from John Adams High School submitted drawings for a chance to have their projects showcased in a local McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mateo Pacheco-Aguilar, a ceramics student, entered the contest weeks ago. He did not expect to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable because I mostly did it not really trying to gain anything from it,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that I have, I don\u2019t know, it feels good knowing something so little can do something so big.\u201d <\/p>\n
Drawing displayed as 5-foot mural<\/p>\n
Pacheco-Aguilar\u2019s art was turned into a 5-foot mural. It was displayed Tuesday at the McDonald\u2019s on Miami Street in South Bend.<\/p>\n
He also won $1,000. The John Adams High School Art Department received a $500 check.<\/p>\n
Amanda Zablocki, an art teacher at John Adams High School, said the money will go toward supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to have our kids have the best opportunity possible with the best supplies. So, that\u2019s really going to help us get some nicer supplies,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can bring some stuff in for them to use. It will go right back to the students for them to be able to use on their projects.\u201d <\/p>\n
Second student\u2019s art to be revealed Wednesday<\/p>\n
Pacheco-Aguilar was not the only student in the community to win the contest. <\/p>\n
A student from Goshen High School also won. Their art will be revealed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
South Bend owner cites community and heritage<\/p>\n
James Negre, owner and operator of the South Bend McDonald\u2019s on Miami Street, said he wants to highlight community and honor Hispanic Heritage Month at his store.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Hispanic, art is so important to our community,\u201d Negre said. \u201cThis is a program that\u2019s actually been national now. And we\u2019re just very glad to participate and bring out the Hispanic culture to the rest of the community and help forge some unity and some shared experience between the two.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both art projects are expected to stay up through the next month.<\/p>\n
Stay up to date on local news with WNDU<\/a> on-air and online. Be sure to download the 16 News Now App<\/a> and follow our YouTube<\/a> page as we continue to bring you the latest news coverage.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 WNDU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – Art from two Michiana high school students is being showcased at two McDonald\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,376156,376154,376155,376153,34834],"class_list":["post-897225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-goshen-mcdonalds-mural","tag-mateo-pacheco-aguilar","tag-mcdonalds-art-competition","tag-south-bend-mcdonalds-mural","tag-wndu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}