Airline Boulevard in Portsmouth, Virginia is home to one of the CHKD Thrift Store network’s several Hampton Roads locations, a secondhand shop at 2717 Airline Boulevard that channels its sales directly into pediatric healthcare at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters. CHKD itself is headquartered across the water in Norfolk, but its reach extends throughout the region through more than two dozen provider locations and a hospital system that includes a Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, and the thrift store network exists specifically to help fund that reach, with CHKD Thrift Stores collectively bringing in more than two million dollars a year for the hospital’s mission of health, healing, and hope.
The Portsmouth store runs on community donations rather than wholesale purchasing, accepting clothing, shoes, bicycles, electronics, books, DVDs, furniture, artwork, and sporting goods from local households. That donation driven model means the sales floor turns over constantly, so a visit in one week can look entirely different from a visit the next, which is part of the appeal for regular thrift shoppers who treat the store as a rotating source of finds rather than a fixed catalog of merchandise.
Hours here match the rest of the CHKD Thrift Store network: open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, giving Portsmouth area residents a wide window for both shopping and donation drop off. On top of everyday thrift pricing, the store runs a set of weekly discount days aimed at specific community groups, Monday brings a military appreciation discount, fitting for a city with deep ties to the regional shipyard and naval community, Tuesday is a general customer appreciation day, Wednesday recognizes first responders, and Thursday offers a discount for shoppers 55 and older.
What makes this Airline Boulevard location worth a special trip rather than treating it as interchangeable with any other secondhand store in the area is the direct connection between a purchase and pediatric medicine. A shopper picking up a used bookshelf, a stack of childrens DVDs, or a bicycle at this store is contributing, dollar for dollar through the store’s proceeds, to the same hospital system that provides emergency care, surgery, specialty medicine, and mental health services to children throughout Hampton Roads. For donors, dropping off a bag of outgrown clothing or a box of household goods becomes a way to support that mission without writing a check, simply by clearing out a closet or garage.
Portsmouth residents looking to donate gently used goods or find an affordable bargain with a clear local cause behind it can visit the Airline Boulevard store during its posted hours, any day of the week. The CHKD Thrift Store in Portsmouth stands as a neighborhood secondhand shop whose everyday sales directly fund pediatric hospital care for children across the Hampton Roads region.
