photo by: Bremen Keasey

The Social Service League's building containing its thrift store was recently refurbished with a mural from a local artist.

Step into what looks like an ordinary alleyway in the shadow of downtown Lawrence’s taller buildings, and you’ll catch a glimpse of colorful sunflowers, coneflowers, bees and monarch butterflies.

They’re not real ones, of course; they’re in a new mural that welcomes guests to the Social Service League’s thrift store. The league is one of Lawrence’s oldest nonprofit organizations, and it collaborated with Indigenous artist Mona Cliff to brighten up its building at 905 Rhode Island St.

Meg Davis, who has been on the board of directors for the Social Service League for 14 years, said the league had been looking for an artist when Cliff suddenly became available. It was a perfect fit, because the league was looking for a theme of beauty and nature to bring positivity to the space, and Cliff is fond of featuring nature and native plants in her art.

“I think Mona did a fabulous job with the mural,” Davis said. “It’s visual, beautiful, we’re really happy with it.”

When Cliff began working with the league on the project, she said Davis directed her to paint something “colorful and whimsical,” creative freedom Cliff took advantage of.

“They wanted something bright, so I really went all out,” Cliff said.

Cliff said the weather had been warm enough that it was easier to get the mural finished this year instead of potentially waiting for the spring. The face-lift project took about six weeks and also involved adding an awning to the door and new shutters for the windows — their color is like a brighter version of the yellow shade that the building’s wall used to be, and they pop out against the mural’s dark blue background.

photo by: Contributed Photo/Meg Davis

The entrance to the Social Service League thrift store is pictured before the painting of its new mural.

As for the mural’s subject, a field of prairie plants and pollinators, Cliff said she chose it in part because she keeps those plants in her garden, but also to highlight that those plants are used by Native tribes for medicine. The incorporation of those native plants is a way to show how art can spread information, she said.

If you ask the Social Service League, it’s doing a good job of that. Just as pollinators are drawn to a field of flowers, Davis said the mural has drawn new attention to the long-running nonprofit.

“It’s the best ad money we’ve ever spent,” Davis said.

The charitable organization has been around in some form since 1863, first responding to the devastation in Lawrence after Quantrill’s Raid. Davis said it became known as the Social Service League in 1911 and has occupied its current location since the ’30s.

Despite its longevity, Davis said many longtime Lawrencians aren’t as familiar with the nonprofit. Davis said people will stumble upon the thrift store and ask her when this unfamiliar business started; she said people are often shocked when she tells them it’s been here “since 1937.”

The space has taken many different forms. In the 1940s, for example, Davis said it served as a canning kitchen for farmers’ wives to help save food over the winter. At other times it served as a job placement center.

But in its current form, some of the ways it serves the community are by giving away cold-weather items like blankets, coats and gloves to people who need them; holding a “Prom Queen Closet” that provides free formal dresses to teens; and a program that ​​offers immediate material assistance to people who are experiencing homelessness or debilitating poverty.

The thrift store may be the most visible part of the nonprofit’s operations, and Davis said it is a key part of the model. It has only two employees and is mostly operated by volunteers, and it is only open on Saturdays. But it draws in a diverse mix of university students, longtime residents and many other community members. Unwanted items donated to the nonprofit are sold, with the funds going directly back into its charity programs, a model Davis feels is unique among Lawrence’s many nonprofits.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

The interior of the Social Service League thrift store is pictured on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

The interior of the Social Service League thrift store is pictured on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

The interior of the Social Service League thrift store is pictured on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024.

Cliff said she was happy to help support that mission with her art. She sees part of her job as an artist as to bring art everywhere, but the fact that this piece was benefiting a local nonprofit aligned with her values.

“Being local and buying local is the best thing for communities,” Cliff said.

As Lawrence continues to come back after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the city on “so many levels,” Davis said she hopes the nonprofit, with its newly beautified building, can help be a catalyst to uplift people in Lawrence after a stretch of hard times.

“(We want to show) Lawrence is worth the investment,” Davis said.