Many teens find themselves with a broken necklace clasp or snapped rings and don’t know what to do. Luckily, DGS students have a solution to their problem: the National Art Honors Society and their new jewelry repair program.

The repair program offers a variety of fixes for your jewelry. These visual arts students can solder your rings, restring your bracelets and repair chains, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Any minor fixes, they’ve got it covered.

Senior Margaret Lukes shares one of the fixes she’s done through the program saying, “I have restrung a bracelet with elastic [in National Art Honors Society.]”

The program is a part of NAHS which brings art related service to the community. Art teacher Janet Taylor is the club sponsor and helps run the honors society to give students opportunities to do service through art. Taylor recounts how the jewelry repair program came to be.

“Throughout the time [that the honors society has run] I started having teachers and staff members come up to me and say ‘hey can you fix this?’ and [I’d say] ‘I don’t have a ton of time to do all this, but I have some really talented students who are really into this. So I’d toss off some stuff to them and then I was like why don’t I have a repair shop, that would be great,” Taylor said.

NHAS’s main goal is to help the community through art related service activities. Students accumulate 15 points each semester to end with a grand total of 30 points at the end of the year; these points earn them an official membership into NHAS. Senior Ana Kybartas shares some of the activities she’s done through NHAS beyond jewelry repair

“Now being at the level that I’m at [I] volunteer and teach kids [art] concepts. I think that’s definitely cool, making projects that benefit the community,” Kybartas said.

Service through art brings creativity and new thinking to local communities. This service doesn’t just benefit the people getting the support, but the people giving it as well. Art and service are both two things that greatly improve one’s cognitive abilities, but also moves people in a positive direction mentally. When both of them are put together you can get the best of both worlds.

Many students enjoy the positives that come with art-based service and the good it does for others. Sophomore Zoe Zoeswiercynk shares why she enjoys giving back to the community through her art.

“I’ve always loved art and it’s been a great outlet for me. As I’ve grown older, I realized how important that was for me and I just wanted to show that to other people and other kids especially,” Zoeswiercynk said.

The NAHS has brought their jewelry fixing skills to students. So next time DGS students have to support local artists and get a free jewelry fix, they can turn to the NAHS.