Receiving a check from subway

Alecia Dixon, a music teacher at Chicago Heights School District 170’s Washington-McKinley School, was presented a $300 grant from local SUBWAY owner Apy Patel and the Chicago-based Fresh Films at a ceremony on Thursday, December 1st.

Dixon, a long-tenured veteran of the district, was excited about receiving the grant.

“I’m thrilled to be an award recipient and plan on using the money to purchase a keyboard controller which will allow me to monitor our students progress on that instrument and will help expand their creative capabilities.” she said.

Across the country, SUBWAY franchise owners continue to be engaged in the communities they serve. Most recently, SUBWAY partnered with Fresh Films to award the $300 grants to teachers throughout the greater Chicago and northwest Indiana areas to encourage innovative programming in the classroom.

For more than a decade, Fresh Films has been the largest national platform for teen filmmaking putting teens behind the camera on films, television shows, short films, and documentaries. The group provides middle school and high school students with hands-on filmmaking experience to experience the benefit of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)-related activities.