Opportunity Village opens temporary thrift store after fire

By Jackie Valley

Published Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 | 1:15 p.m.

Updated Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 | 5:14 p.m.

Eager customers and supporters gathered outside the temporary Opportunity Village Thrift Store more than an hour before its grand opening today — four months to the day after a fire ravaged its former South Main Street store.

"Everything, it appears, happens for a reason," said Ed Guthrie, executive director of Opportunity Village. "The thrift store burned and we had to find a temporary location ... We were very fortunate in finding this location."

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman joined the grand-opening festivities to help with the ribbon-cutting at the store's new location, 4600 Meadows Lane, in the northwest valley near U.S. 95 and Meadows Mall.

"When I found out there was a fire, of course, it brought a great pall over our entire valley here," said Goodman, who heard the initial transformer explosion on South Main Street from his home. "I'm delighted you were able to find a home so quickly."

A transformer explosion on South Main Street shattered the thrift store's windows July 11 and, later that evening, a fire consumed the nonprofit organization's former building. Fire officials could not determine the cause of the two incidents, which happened about a block apart.

Opportunity Village is a Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization that serves people with intellectual disabilities by providing job training, employment and social recreation services. Many Opportunity Village clients worked at the thrift store on South Main Street.

Donna Jenkin, whose daughter occasionally volunteers at the thrift store, attended the grand opening Monday morning to show her support for the organization.

"She was really upset over (the fire) because she knows all the clients," said Jenkin, who is also on Opportunity Village's Board of Directors.

But Laurence Harness said good did emerge from the tragedy. Harness, a marketing and sales consultant at Cadillac of Las Vegas-West, became involved with the organization after hearing about the fire.

"There's more people aware of Opportunity Village because of the fire, and they're getting involved," he said.

The thrift store's new building on Meadows Lane will serve as a temporary, two-year location until a new building on South Main Street opens, Guthrie said.

"We were pleased by the fact that no one was hurt (in the fire)," he said. "But other than that, we were devastated. After four months, we've been able to make lemonade out of lemons."

The 15 to 20 clients who work at the thrift store couldn't be happier, Guthrie said. About 60 to 80 high school students also work at the thrift store throughout the year as part of a job discovery program.

The clients kept asking, "When can we go back?" Guthrie said. They had been temporarily working at other Opportunity Village centers since the fire.

"These are folks who really love retail, and this is their store," he said.

Goods donated since the July 11 fire were used to stock the 25,000-square-foot store — and there are still truckloads of donations awaiting placement, Guthrie said.

Opportunity Village officials found the retail space, a former clothing store, about eight weeks ago and spruced it up with a little cleaning and new paint before moving in.

"When we found the store, we not only found a store, we found a store with fixtures," Guthrie said, referring to the shelving and racks displaying items for sale.

Guthrie said they're waiting for the final settlement with the insurance company before have more in-depth conversations with an architect about rebuilding the store on South Main Street. They are, however, mulling over ideas to connect the future store with its Arts District location, such as a gallery to display art by clients.

In the meantime, the Meadows Lane building is a great location with an open floor plan, Guthrie said.

Monday morning, lines of customers snaked through the thrift store in both directions with shoppers like Lynda Owen, who was navigating a cart full of items. She and her husband have been supporting Opportunity Village for 20 years.

"It was a way to help and help me at the same time," Owen said of her shopping trip.