Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou learned the importance of serving others from her mother, who opened her front door and her heart, to young people who needed a place to live.
“If parents found out someone was gay and kicked them out of the house, my mom would take them in,” says Kallas-Saritsoglou, 58, who grew up in Reading, PA. “She showed us what unconditional love looked like.”
Kallas-Saritsoglou has honored her mother’s memory every day of her working life. In 2005, she co-founded Philly AIDS Thrift (P.A.T.) as a nonprofit thrift store with all proceeds going to organizations involved in HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support. To date, the organization has given away $5.6 million, via grants to dozens of organizations providing HIV/AIDS services across the Philadelphia region.
“That’s an insane amount. It’s a huge store, and there are significant expenses attached to the building, and they’ve raised that much money selling $1 t-shirts and used coffee cups,” says P.A.T. Board President Michael Byrne.
In early March, P.A.T. announced its 2026 grant recipients, awarding $404,500 in $5,000 to $15,000 chunks to 33 organizations. Among them were Prevention Point Philadelphia, The Attic Youth Center, and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.
That’s game-changing money, especially for smaller organizations, like Kennett Square’s Camp Dreamcatcher, which offers year-round programming to youth impacted by HIV/AIDS. Founder Patty Hillkirk says P.A.T.’s dollars have allowed more than 160 young people to attend its programs.
“Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, and Philly Aids Thrift, have been making dreams come true for children served by Camp Dreamcatcher for over 11 years,” Hillkirk said in an email. “She is truly a Camp Dreamcatcher superhero.”
Add that to the organization’s other contributions, which include employing 30 people, offering free on-site HIV testing, and allowing local organizations to give clients-in-need $50 store vouchers for clothing and household products.
P.A.T. can also brag that because of its intervention, Giovanni’s Room, the country’s oldest LGBTQ+ and feminist bookstore, is still open for customers.
Perhaps most importantly, P.A.T. has built a community, becoming a valued local hub that hosts block parties and attracts visitors from around the neighborhood and the world.
“It’s not just the LGBT community. It’s not just people with HIV. It’s not just people of color. It’s everybody,” Byrne says. “It’s for people who love thrifting, have a sense of humor, love kitsch. The store has a personality that’s really fun and cool, and that’s Christina.”
The outside of Philly AIDS Thrfit.
The store reflects that fun, cool vibe, inside and out. It’s the kind of place where you need time to stand and take in all of the art on the walls, the small signs, the unusual items used for decor, including the odd skeleton and the head of Michelangelo’s David. Outside, a street pole is covered with stuffed animals, and a vivid 95-foot mural honoring the lives, contributions, and challenges of Black trans women stretches across the top of the building. Boxes of free items line the sidewalk.
The store is known for being affordable; there are large bins of clothing going for $1 each and multiple shelves of $1 books. Of course, there are a few higher-value items. On a recent visit, those included an antique sculpture/ashtray priced at $189.99 and an electric guitar for $119.99.
“We’re a thrift store. The price is always going to be lower than what it’s worth, but we also want to honor our donors by saying, ‘We recognize you gave us this really wonderful thing,’” says Kallas-Saritsoglou, who is often in her office, in the far back of the store, out of shoppers’ gaze. “I just think it’s such a beautiful thing that we’re able to take these items that folks no longer want and turn them into dollars that really make an impact in people’s lives.”
Chris Bartlett, retired executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center says Kallas-Saritsoglou “operates out of passion.” He calls her “a champion of the underdog, [who] has a healthy suspicion of those who have too much.”
She’s also uncomfortable with the attention, stressing that she’s just one member of a large team. P.A.T store Manager Adam Proctor has worked with her for 19 years and says his boss/friend prefers to stay behind the scenes, as she does when she’s onsite.
“You know when you go to a hospital and it says, ‘This wing is sponsored by an anonymous donor?’ She’s the anonymous donor,” he says. “She does all the nice things, but doesn’t want anyone to know she did them. A lot more people should be like that.”
Philly, AIDS and thrift
Growing up in Reading, Kallas-Saritsoglou says, “there wasn’t a lot going on,” especially for her and her friend group of “punk rockers, artists, and queer kids.” They frequently visited Philadelphia, going to live music shows and hanging out on South Street.
Moving to the city after graduating high school “was a no-brainer.” At that point, the AIDS epidemic had been unfolding in waves for years. Kallas-Saritsoglou and her friends noticed when people in their extended circle began getting sick and, increasingly, dying.
“We were all thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ Everybody was freaked out. There were no computers, and it was much more difficult to get information than it is today.” Kallas-Saritsoglou recalls. “The AIDS epidemic really had a profound impact on my life, which is why HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism has always been deeply important to me.”
Settled in Philadelphia, Kallas-Saritsoglou began volunteering at a South Street thrift store that raised money for HIV awareness and prevention, eventually rising to become the charity shop’s director of volunteers. She then worked at other HIV service organizations, where she found herself surrounded by “passionate people with a mission: saving people’s lives. It was serious work, carried out by wonderfully dedicated people,” she says.
Jason Evans met Kallas-Saritsoglou when he was a volunteer for the AIDS Information Network, where she was coordinating volunteers. Evans calls his friend, “a major influence on my life.”
“Christina has always been a person who gives a lot of love to a lot of people. I’ve watched it for close to 30 years now,” Evans says. “She’s someone you can always pick up the phone and talk to when you feel like you have nobody else.”
Being a young Black gay man in the 1990s was challenging, Evans says. Kallas-Saritsoglou showed him ways to engage in the community in positive ways, launching a lifetime of volunteerism, he says. She showed him that he was not only welcome, but wanted.
“Knowing you had even just one space where you could let your guard down in a big, scary world … was essential for survival,” Evans says.
Bobby Saritsoglou, Kallas-Saritsoglou’s husband, a chef, and, with her, co-owner of the South Philly Mediterranean restaurant Stina, says his wife is an empath who naturally attracts people and inspires them to do good work.
“The world is kept together by a few people, She’s one of them,” he says. “She’s been a force in this city for 40 years.”
Bobby and Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou at their restaurant, Stina. Photo by Neal Santos. And then … Philly AIDS Thrift
In 2005, Kallas-Saritsoglou and friends Peter Hiler, Tom Brennan and Mike Wilson learned about an empty retail space on Bainbridge Street near S. 5th Street, a property that would become Philly AIDS Thrift’s first location. Hiler and Wilson launched the organization’s board. Kallas-Saritsoglou and Brennan, who retired four years ago, ran the store.
“We’re AIDS activists and lovers of junk, so we combined the two and this is what came of it,” she says. “I had no clue if this was going to work out or not.”
Starting out, the four scoured their own homes for things to sell. They asked friends to do the same. Soon, community members began donating items as well. P.A.T. grew quickly. One year after opening, it expanded to include a second Bainbridge Street property.
In 2011, P.A.T. moved again, but to a storefront on the 700 block of S. 5th Street that was more than double the size of display space with room to expand. The larger site meant there was also space for private, on-site HIV testing.
In 2014, the organization saved Giovanni’s Room, the nation’s oldest and feminist LGBTQ+ bookstore, from closure, stepping in to run daily operations. They renamed the satellite store Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room, and added thrifted items to its inventory of new and used books. In 2018, P.A.T. purchased the building at 12th and Pine Streets that has long housed the business. (The building’s purchase price is not included in the $5.6 million they’ve given away in grants.)
“We wanted to preserve the legacy of what had been created and insert who we are into the store as well,” Kallas-Saritsoglou says. “You simply can’t have enough safe queer spaces.”
She knows it’s working: She recently received a letter from a young person who is transitioning and has always felt uncomfortable shopping for clothes, even at other secondhand stores.
“They shared how coming to Philly AIDS Thrift completely changed their experience. Our staff answered questions, helped them shop, and made them feel supported,” Kallas-Saritsoglou says. “They wrote to tell us how much the experience meant and how safe they felt here.”
(Full disclosure: This reporter is a frequent P.A.T. shopper and used to take her pre-school aged nieces there so the girls could try on high heels in the store’s shoe department. They continue to balance better on heels than this reporter to this day.)
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Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou in her office at Philly AIDS Thrift. Photo by Phil Chau.