The Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary Thrift Store sits at 5693 Cowrie Street in downtown Sechelt, British Columbia, a short walk from the ferry served heart of the Sunshine Coast. The shop is the retail arm of the Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary, a volunteer organization founded in September 1981 by the St. Mary’s Hospital Society to raise funds and encourage community support for Sechelt Hospital and the wider healthcare programs that serve coastal residents from Gibsons to Halfmoon Bay. The store outgrew its original footprint within a decade and expanded to its current size in the early 1990s, and it remains, by its own account, one of only a small number of hospital auxiliaries in British Columbia that operates independently of a hospital foundation, relying instead entirely on community donations and volunteer labor to keep its doors open.
Shoppers can browse clean secondhand clothing, household goods, books, small appliances, home decor, games, toys, pet supplies, DVDs, craft supplies, jewelry, and luggage, all priced to move quickly and turn donated goods into hospital funding. The auxiliary is selective about what it takes in: furniture, childrens equipment such as car seats and strollers, and hardcover books are not accepted, a policy that keeps the shop focused on smaller, easily displayed items and avoids the storage and liability headaches that bulkier donations can create. Items that cannot be resold are recycled rather than sent to landfill, a sustainability habit that runs alongside the fundraising mission.
The store keeps a simple weekly rhythm that separates browsing from giving. Shoppers can visit Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., while donors can drop items at the back doors any day of the week, Monday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., a wider donation window designed to make giving convenient even outside retail hours. That structure lets a small volunteer crew manage both sales and intake without the two functions colliding on the sales floor.
For Sunshine Coast residents, the appeal is straightforward: bargain prices on everyday goods paired with the knowledge that every purchase supports local healthcare rather than a distant corporate office. The auxiliary model of hospital fundraising is common across British Columbia, but this Sechelt store stands out for having built and sustained its own independent fundraising operation for more than four decades without routing funds through a separate hospital foundation structure. That independence has let volunteers keep overhead low and direct a larger share of proceeds straight back into the equipment, programs, and services that keep Sechelt Hospital running for a geographically spread out coastal community stretching well beyond the town itself.
Visitors looking for a specific find, whether it is a stack of paperbacks, a set of dishes, a board game for a rainy coastal afternoon, or a piece of costume jewelry, are encouraged to check back often since inventory turns over quickly with daily donations. The shop’s central Cowrie Street location puts it within easy reach of other downtown Sechelt shops and services, making a thrift store stop an easy add on to a coastal day out or a ferry layover. Pet owners will also find a small but steady selection of pet products, an unusual category for a hospital auxiliary shop that reflects how broadly the volunteers have tried to serve the whole community, not just its bargain hunters.
In short, the Sunshine Coast Healthcare Auxiliary Thrift Store is a volunteer run secondhand shop in Sechelt, BC that has funded local hospital care since 1981 by turning donated clothing, books, housewares, and small goods into direct support for Sunshine Coast healthcare, all while keeping prices low enough that thrifting and giving back happen in the very same transaction.
