About Us

The Lawrence Humane Society has been serving the city of Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas since 1951. Our mission is to nurture the human-animal bond by providing shelter, care, and advocacy for homeless and vulnerable animals, as well as resources for the pets and people in the community. We seek to demonstrate how animal shelters can become an integral social service agency in a community and create a future in which barriers do not exist in pet ownership. The Lawrence Humane Society cares for over 7,500 animals every year who come to the shelter as strays, surrendered by owners, and transferred from rural and lower-resourced neighboring animal shelters. Our life-saving rate is 95%, meaning that 95% of animals who enter Lawrence Humane have a positive outcome through reunification with owners, adoption, or transfer to another licensed agency. We are the primary pet food pantry in Douglas County, distributing over 106,000 lbs of pet food per year. Through our Crisis Pet Retention program, we keep pets and people together through houselessness, joblessness, physical and mental health crises, and more. Learn more about Lawrence Humane by going to lawrencehumane.org!

Lawrence Beer Co. was founded in 2017 at 826 Pennsylvania St., in a 100+-year-old stand-alone building in the popular Warehouse Arts District of East Lawrence. The space was kept as original as possible and feature a lot of the original exposed brick, concrete, and steel, as well as tables made from 120 year old wooden beams repurposed from the original building during construction. LBC (as it's popularly known) is split between the restaurant, taproom, and brewery production area. A family-friendly venue, LBC also has a large covered wrap-around deck for outside seating, as well as a lower, hardscaped area off the deck full of picnic tables for a more casual, backyard-style vibe where dogs are allowed and welcomed! LBC is proud to be community-based and community-focused, as well as caring deeply for and empowering their staff.  Learn more about LBC by going to lawrencebeerco.com!

Kent Smith (Smitty) is a dimension-jumping illustrator, designer, sculptor, teacher, problem-maker, problem solver, and magic-man sharing grand visions from afar. His work can be found on toys, beer labels, custom masks, huge woodblocks prints, giant festival sculptures and tiny trading cards. Smitty uses his crazy brainpowers and a menagerie of media to solve problems and deliver creative, unexpected, solutions that are rich in play and story. Kent also celebrates teaching in the Design Department at the University of Kansas, as well as working with the Lawrence Arts Center, VanGo, Percolator and other fine organizations. Smitty loves super-heroes, ninjas, monkeys, UFOs, cryptids, robots, ray-guns, and romance. He is always up for creative adventures and hopes you will come visit Smittytown whenever you need a fantastic escape, ridiculous adventure, and fun solutions for your creative needs. You can see examples of Smitty's artwork at smittytown.com!