With 25 athletic teams and 55 clubs, one would think EHS has it all. Students can partake in all types of activities from football to the Film Society to War Games club. One group, however, has just recently jumped onto the list of EHS clubs: the National Art Honor Society.

 Seniors Grace Perry, Nara Markowitz, and Sarah Goldacker began developing a chapter of the National Art Honor Society (NAHS) at the end of the 2015-2016 school year.

 “I wanted a way for all the really talented artists at our high school to have their time and effort acknowledged,” NAHS president Grace Perry said. “We have NHS for academic achievement, varsity letters for sports achievements, and FHS, NSHS, and GHS for foreign language achievements, but we had no way to acknowledge an art student’s time or talent. NAHS gives us that.”

 The club is sponsored by art teacher Kelly Spinka and will connect students to the Edwardsville art community, Perry said.

 “We’re still getting our feet settled on some new top secret projects, but we’re working together with the Edwardsville Art Board to get us more involved with the Edwardsville art scene and some art related community service activities right now,” vice president Nara Markowitz said.

 NAHS is accepting sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have maintained a B average in at least one year of art classes, Goldacker said. The members will be expected to accumulate 25 hours of volunteer service for the whole year, and the group will meet monthly.

 Goldacker, Markowitz, and Perry all believe NAHS is off to a successful start.

 “We were surprised at how many people already started joining. So far we have a little less than 20 people and for how little advertising we’ve done, I think that’s a decent amount,” Markowitz said.

 The officers plan to begin accepting applications again soon.

 One of the members of the group is senior Riley Coad who joined the honor society at the end of last year.

 “There aren’t many clubs and activities that I fit into, so I was excited to hear about an art related club that some of my friends were running,” she said. “A lot of the things I heard we would be doing sounded like a lot of fun, and they were things I wouldn’t have the chance to do otherwise.”

 One of these opportunities is the chance to display, and possibly sell, her and other NAHS members’ art work at the Edwardsville Art Fair. The officers are also planning two big events for this year’s fall and spring semesters to “(share) the joy of actually doing art with others in the community,” Goldacker said.

 “I want NAHS to grow and become something awesome at EHS,” Perry said. “We hope that this year we can build a good foundation and that next year the new officers can take what we have done and improve on it.”