photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Van Go has unveiled 20 new benches, which were crafted by their summer JAMS apprentice artists.

When Douglas County Commissioner Gene Dorsey saw the memorial bench created in honor of his late son, he said he was nearly brought to tears.

Todd Dorsey died two and a half years ago at 39 from heart failure tied to bipolar schizoaffective disorder. To honor his memory, Dorsey worked with youth artist Jess Ortega at Van Go, and he asked for two meaningful elements: a basketball and a lake from a summer camp.

“My son was a very good basketball player in high school and was recruited by a lot of Division II and III schools,” Dorsey said. ” … And then, when he was growing up, he went to a camp every summer, first as a camper and then as a counselor and a maintenance worker for like seven or eight years. And that camp is called Camp Deerwood, and we lived in New Jersey at the time.”

Ortega presented a prototype by sketching the design and placing it on an existing bench. Dorsey and co-sponsor of the bench Bob Tryanski, the county’s director of behavioral health projects, approved it immediately.

“We were throwing out all these ideas, but the gal really came up with the design … And we all agreed that (it) looks great,” Dorsey said.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

JAMS youth at Van Go spend the last day of the Benchmark program creating art that will be later sold at the nonprofit’s holiday art sale later this year.

All of those things came through on the bench that was created as a part of Van Go’s Benchmark program, a yearly summer job training initiative for youth ages 14 to 18 in Lawrence. The participants in the program, which is called JAMS, collaborate with local clients to design and build custom benches. Through this hands-on project, they gain job skills and life skills such as communicating, problem-solving, and creative design.

Clients can commission a bench for their home or business or even donate one to the organization of choice. Van Go accepts reservations for the summer Benchmark program year-round, and is already taking reservations for next year’s benches. The benches are $1,500 each, and requesting a spot on the client list requires a $100 deposit.

Sarah Humbert, community engagement coordinator at Van Go, said the JAMS program employs 20 high schoolers each year, each of whom is assigned one client to make a bench for. It takes eight weeks for the students to execute their bench designs and present them at the unveiling, which was held on Friday, Aug. 1, after meeting with their assigned client on a couple of occasions and completing multiple sketches and blueprints.

This year, Van Go will be surpassing 500 benches created since the program began in 1998. They’ve gone to clients in the Lawrence community, and in some cases outside the city or even outside the state.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Van Go has unveiled 20 new benches, which were crafted by their summer JAMS apprentice artists.

“Once you start seeing them around town, you don’t stop seeing them,” Humbert said. “… These benches are everywhere.”

Dorsey said his favorite part of commissioning a bench was the opportunity to support two nonprofits at once: Van Go and the Cardinal Housing Network. His bench, he said, will be placed at the new supportive housing development for women in recovery, located across from the historic courthouse and operated by the Cardinal Housing Network. The bench also includes a large red cardinal.

Dorsey wasn’t the only one to commission a bench in honor of a lost loved one. Commissioner Shannon Reid also commissioned a bench to honor her mother, who died in 2023.

“Since then, I’ve thought it would be a really cool way to memorialize her and honor her life by getting one of these benches for her, so I’ve had the idea bumping around my head for a couple years,” Reid said.

The bench has elements of photography as well as her mom’s passion for art, and it will also be at a location operated by the Cardinal Housing Network, at the site of two houses on Ohio Stree. The houses are expected to open later this year and offer seven apartments for women in recovery and their children, something that Reid said had a connection to her mom’s story.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The benches created in Van Go’s Benchmark program will each be accompanied with a sign including the artist’s bench statements.

“I was born in 1985, and my mom became pregnant with me, and then we supported through her pregnancy at a sober living home that was for women and children,” Reid said. ” … She got a lot of support in that sort of supportive housing environment while she was in a path of recovery … before being able to relocate to Lawrence.”

Reid said she hopes that this bench will be something that others enjoy for decades to come.

“(I hope) whoever lives there over the next however many decades will get to sort of enjoy this really beautiful piece of art that comes from a place of somebody that really was on a path of recovery and chose a different life for herself and her child,” Reid said.

Thialand Morris-Tucker, an assistant team leader for the Van Go JAMS program, said the bench she created was for the family of Van Go Executive Director Lori McSorley. The bench was to honor McSorley’s father, who died of cancer.

“When I first got into the client meeting and I spoke to her, what I had in mind was not at all what I put on my bench,” Morris-Tucker said. “… My first thought was ‘I should just do a landscape portrait,’ but when I was going through the sketching and the base coating, our arts director was like, ‘you should probably add something.'”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

JAMS youth at Van Go spend the last day of the Benchmark program creating art that will be later sold at the nonprofit’s holiday art sale later this year.

The advice Morris-Tucker got was to take something that meant a lot to McSorley’s father and make it the largest thing in the design, instead of adding smaller elements in the background of the landscape.

“I took that advice, and he really likes fishing … so I added this giant fish with a few cattails and a dragonfly,” Morris-Tucker said. “And I feel like if I didn’t get that advice, I would have been probably struggling a little bit because adding small details on a large bench, it’s harder than you think.”

Morris-Tucker said she really challenged herself with this bench – this was her second time creating one for the Benchmark program – and wanted to create a more realistic landscape rather than something more cartoony.

“Like looking at my bench now, I sometimes be like, I can’t believe I did that,” Morris-Tucker said. “My art style has definitely evolved a lot, because I’m now pushing myself towards a realistic style.”

Alex Van Vleck, another assistant team leader, said his bench was for Karen and Steve Schuyler to honor Steve’s brother Alan Schuyler. He said Alan was a traveler and spent some time in several different places, like Israel, and has helped with numerous different charities.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Van Go has unveiled 20 new benches, which were crafted by their summer JAMS apprentice artists.

“He loved the wilderness, and I tried to incorporate all that into my bench,” Van Vleck said. “… I’m honored to make it because it’ll be a good memorial bench.”

Van Vleck said his favorite feature of the bench is the northern lights.

“The art director, Rick Wright, he had the idea of spray painting to get some nice texture for the northern lights, and we created some stencil to get that curvy shape,” Van Vleck said. “It really made the bench pop.”

Van Vleck added that he thinks it’s really neat that there are so many benches like these already out there in Lawrence.

“It’s really nice to know that Van Go has that reach, and to be a part of it makes it all worth it,” Van Vleck said.

The bench honoring Commissioner Gene Dorsey’s son is pictured on the left, and the bench honoring Commissioner Shannon Reid’s mother is pictured on the right.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

JAMS youth at Van Go spend the last day of the Benchmark program creating art that will be later sold at the nonprofit’s holiday art sale later this year.