Bringing out the city’s ‘welcoming nature’: New street banners represent diverse people of Lawrence | News, Sports, Jobs


photograph by: Check out Lawrence

These new street banners are portion of a marketing campaign of the Lawrence visitors’ bureau, Check out Lawrence, and function 10 neighborhood citizens. Pictured in the best row, still left to right: Pam Van Roekel, of the Eldridge Lodge Severina Martin del Campo, of La Tropicana Brian Lenjo, of the Eldridge Resort boxer Shiloh LeBeau Nicole Van Velzen, animal rescue employee. Bottom row: Stephanie Willis, of BodyTruth Apothecary hip-hop artist Cuee Roger Boyd, of the Baker Wetlands Lied Centre executive director Derek Kwan and artist Mona Cliff.

From a hip-hop artist to a resort supervisor, the faces that greet Lawrence people and visitors from avenue banners are meant to emphasize the range and uniqueness of the town.
The banners are portion of a campaign of the Lawrence visitors’ bureau, Explore Lawrence, and characteristic 10 community citizens. They cling from light-weight posts about the downtown, at significant intersections, and numerous other spots across the town.
Andrea Johnson, director of advertising and marketing and communications for Examine Lawrence, reported the hope is that the diversity of citizens picked for the city banners — both in demographics and what they represent — emphasize what will make Lawrence unique.
“I just feel it is seriously a incredibly authentic and genuine illustration of Lawrence and it just delivers out the welcoming character of who we are,” Johnson explained.
The banners went up in April, replacing the very first iteration of metropolis banners that includes the faces of nearby citizens. Like the initially set, the new banners will likely continue to be up for numerous decades. Investigate Lawrence Government Director Kim Anspach explained the initially set of banners had been developed in 2015 when Check out Lawrence launched its “Unmistakably Lawrence” manufacturer. The new marketing campaign contains a linked sequence of quick videos from 30 people responding to the prompt, “Why Lawrence?”
The 10 people on the banners were among the the 30 who took aspect in the “Why Lawrence?” project. Johnson said the choice system aimed to get a vast wide range of folks and views, and that the 30 residents highlighted consist of organization homeowners, artists, musicians, and athletes, as nicely as individuals representing each the city’s universities, the College of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations College.
The photos and films for all 30 persons ended up done by Lawrence photographer Jason Dailey, and are being added to the Unmistakably Lawrence web-site. Johnson stated the movies are currently being produced just one-by-1, and that ultimately, everyone represented on the banners will have a related online video on the web-site.
Underneath is some information about each individual of the 10 folks highlighted on the banners, collected from the Take a look at Lawrence films, past Journal-Environment reporting and other resources as mentioned.
Cuee is a transgender hip-hop artist from Chicago now creating his way in the music scene in Lawrence, according to his site. Cuee has carried out in over 10 cities and performed at pride activities in Lawrence and Kansas Metropolis. Cuee is also concerned in neighborhood activism, and is a board member at The Haus of McCoy, a queer and trans youth center in Lawrence.
Stephanie Willis is the operator of the downtown store BodyTruth Soap Apothecary, 10 E. 9th St. Willis commenced building cleaning soap in Detroit in 2014, applying substances from a group back garden. She afterwards opened her initial in-man or woman store in Lawrence in 2019, where she sells cleaning soap, shampoo, and other handmade pores and skin treatment from plant-dependent components.
Nicole Van Velzen operates in animal rescue, with a special aim on conclusion-of-existence treatment for older dogs. Van Velzen fostered 26 puppies and kittens in 2021, according to her site. She authors a web site wherever she shares tales about the animals she cares for.
Shiloh “Shy” LeBeau is a U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Affiliation Nationwide Winner Boxer. LeBeau will stand for Kansas this August as a member of the KC Golden Gloves National Team the 2022 Nationwide Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to her Facebook web site. LeBeau was the subject a 2017 Amazon Prime documentary, “Shiloh,” which focused on her experience as a Indigenous American, female boxer.
Brian Lenjo is the entrance desk manager for the downtown Lawrence’s historic Eldridge Resort, 701 Massachusetts St. The hotel was a fixture in the violent period of time leading up to the Civil War, and was burned down twice. Lenjo has been highlighted in films and interviews about the hotel’s heritage and meant paranormal exercise. Pam Van Roekel, standard supervisor of the Eldridge Resort, is also showcased in a city banner.
Severina Martin del Campo is the matriarch of the loved ones-owned restaurant La Tropicana, 434 Locust St., which serves Mexican delicacies. The relatives opened their company in 1967, and believes it is the oldest loved ones-owned cafe with first homeowners in the exact same place in Lawrence, as the Journal-World claimed. Del Campo and her late spouse, Jesse Sr., taught youthful family associates how to cook their pretty individual recipes.
Mona Cliff is a multidisciplinary visible artist concentrating on modern day Native American identity and tradition by way of traditional Indigenous crafting solutions such as seed bead embroidery and material applique. Cliff, a member of the Gros Ventre tribe, made the “Natives Now” mural in East Lawrence, served with the “Restoration” mural in close proximity to the wetlands, and final 12 months was chosen for two prestigious museum and airport commissions, as the Journal-Entire world claimed.
Derek Kwan is the executive director of the executing arts centre, the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Push. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards, and has creation credits on over 60 albums, like the Grammy-successful “Bebo De Cuba” and New York Moments Album of the Yr “Lagrimas Negras,” according to the Lied’s website.
Roger Boyd is a scientist and birding qualified. Boyd beforehand served as director of the Baker College Wetlands, and was an integral element of restoring the Baker Wetlands and creating the on-web-site Discovery Heart, 1365 N. 1250 Street.





