The Other Side Thrift Boutique

Caitie and I stopped by a new thrift store in our area to see if they had any books for the NICU babies, and the manager donated 42 books to our NICU. 

This is the thrift store called The Other Side Thrift Boutique:

They are located at 4290 South State Street in Murray, Utah. If you are local or in the area, please stop by.

 These are the books they donated:

What is even more important is the purpose of The Other Side Thrift Boutique. This store is part of The Other Side Academy. You can learn more about the amazing work they do here: The Other Side Academy Web Site.   I checked out their website and cried over the life saving stories that are shared there. I encourage you to check out their website and if you are local to stop by their store and check it out because they are making the world a better place. They also have a link on their website to their moving company that is highly rated. 

To summarize, this organization helps people who struggled in life. They help people who want to change their lives, maybe they have struggled with drug use, or homelessness, or spent time in the criminal justice system. The Other Side Academy is a two year program that saves lives and makes those saved lives worth living. They are a vocational training school and this store is used as part of their academy. Students learn to work hard, to work with others, to deal with frustrations, to be polite and respectful, and to live free from toxic behaviors that have kept them from success.

Students learn how to work in the retail and warehouse sectors and learn all aspects of the retail trade. This thrift store doesn't look like a normal thrift store. The store is clean and bright, things are well organized and set up more like a store at the mall than a thrift shop, and the furniture section looks like a furniture store. The staff is helpful and kind. We were greeted as soon as we stepped into the store.

Here are some pictures that I took the day I was there.

The store has many windows that let in a lot of natural light, and they even have outside displays that you can check out before you walk in the door.

 They have nice dressing rooms, so you can try on your finds. This is one of many shoe displays.

 There are tasteful displays throughout the store and prices are reasonable.

They have framed their goals and also have frames throughout they store showing each goal expanded. I love these goals.

 They have many beautiful pieces of furniture.

This is my happy place the book nook. It is well organized and the children's books are only a dollar. I believe the other books are $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks with some higher end books custom priced, so the prices are very good. We met the lady who organized the book nook, and she knew what she was doing as the books are sorted well. They even have chairs for you to sit and read. You can see more of the goal posters in this picture. 

I feel good about shopping and donating to this thrift shop because I know they are doing good things in our world. Thanks go to the Other Side Thrift Boutique for the books for the NICU and thank you for making our world a better place to live in. I love places like this that see the good in people and strive to help others. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Michelle also sent over some books. Thank you, Michelle. With all the support we've been getting lately, we may be able to reach every single baby that spends time in our NICU. Each baby gets five books to take home. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you.