Nonprofit Dinosaurs & Roses opens second Las Vegas thrift store

Dinosaurs & Roses, a nonprofit that sells thrifted items and returns profits to Nevada-based charities, has opened a thrift shop in the southwest valley.

The West Charleston Boulevard location is the nonprofit’s second; it also has a store on East Tropicana Avenue.

Dinosaurs & Roses also provides clothing and supplies to the homeless and to seniors and is a scholarship-grant organization through Assembly Bill 165. The bill allows businesses to contribute part of their modified-business tax to a scholarship program for low-income students to attend private school.

The nonprofit’s scholarship grant helped 300 children attend private school last year and will helped about the same number of children this year, Executive Director Michele Morgan-Devore said.

Dinosaurs & Roses partners with over 40 charities, including Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, Foreclosed Upon Pets, Las Vegas Urban League and Opportunity Village.

Morgan-Devore opens her shop on Mondays to low-income residents who are referred by partner charities, allowing them to shop for free.

“They get to have what they want and what fits their style, rather than someone saying you know, ‘You’re poor, have a bag of clothes,” Morgan-Devore said.

The merchandise at Dinosaurs & Roses primarily comes from donations. In addition to furniture, the store carries rugs, kitchen gadgets, dishes and glassware. One side of the store has shelves of lighting fixtures, another wall is lined with books organized by genre.

Morgan-Devore arranges furniture, artwork and pottery by color or theme.

“What we love is that we’re not a stinky thrift store,” she said. “… You don’t have to rummage through anything; everything is super organized. That’s something we really pride ourselves on.”

The nonprofit partnered on the thrift store with New Vista, another nonprofit that serves intellectually disabled individuals by providing housing, in-home support and life-skills training.

“We decided to come into their space and give back a portion of our sales to them,” Morgan-Devore said. “So that when you come and shop with us, you’re also supporting them and the work that they do.”

The West Charleston location is New Vista’s former thrift-shop space, and New Vista will retain offices there. From the late 1980s until 2015, New Vista operated several thrift shops throughout the valley, according to Executive Director Archie McArthur.

New Vista owns 22 homes throughout Las Vegas, has 130 employees and provides 24-hour staffing where its clients live.

The details of the partnership still are being worked out, such as how much of each thrift store sale will go to New Vista and how the two organizations will share rent. McArthur and Morgan-Devore stressed that the two nonprofits are not joining boards; they’re just trying to help each other out.

“We’re absolutely two separate organizations, but we’re looking in the same direction,” Morgan-Devore said. “And our direction is basically to help as many people down the line as humanly possible.”

McArthur joked that they haven’t yet figured out who is going to buy toilet paper.

“We just know that everbody needs some,” Morgan-Devore said.

Contact Madelyn Reese at mreese@viewnews.com or 702-383-0497. Follow @MadelynGReese on Twitter.