About this Event
East City Bookshop welcomes local business owner and author, Gina Schaefer to discuss her book, Recovery Hardware, in conversation with ECB's owner, Laurie Gillman.
Note on Format: This hybrid event will have both an in-person component with limited seating as well as a virtual broadcast via Zoom Webinar. Both in-person and virtual attendees will be able to pose questions to the authors during audience Q&A.
COVID-19 Information: Please note that East City Bookshop continuously monitors public health guidance to ensure the safety of customers, authors, and our staff and reserves the right to adjust in-person events. Masks and proof of vaccination are required for all in-person attendees.
ABOUT RECOVERY HARDWARE
Once a lively hub of industry and entertainment, Washington, DC’s, Logan Circle crumbled in the aftermath of the 1968 riots. Decades of neglect led to boarded-up buildings, overgrown and littered sidewalks, and widespread drug use and addiction.
Laid off again and tired of the tech industry, Gina Schaefer needed a fresh start. Determined to bring her neighborhood back to life, Gina opened her first hardware store near Whitman-Walker’s Addiction Services program. What began as an effort to help her community recover evolved into a safe space for countless people in recovery to rebuild their lives.
Recovery Hardware shares the powerful true story of A Few Cool Hardware Stores’ CEO Gina Schaefer’s path to building an innovative business that revitalized her urban community and provided opportunities for everyone to thrive, no matter their past.
You’ll discover
- Unexpected, heartwarming, and sometimes heart-wrenching lessons from resilient employees who struggled with substance abuse.
- Surprising business ethics and customer-service skills from unconventional backgrounds that you won’t find on a résumé.
- How to put bravery, empathy, and trust into the backbone of your workplace culture.
- Humorous insights into retail store ownership, like how to choose the right store dog or not screw up inventory.
- Workforce solutions to remove obstacles for people in recovery—because you can’t judge anyone by the best or worst thing they’ve ever done.
Second chances transform communities and change lives—and they often start with one business at a time. Get Recovery Hardware and start building a better business where growth gives back.
GINA SCHAEFER Gina Schaefer is the founder and CEO of over a dozen hardware stores in Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, and the surrounding areas. As a member of the Ace Hardware Cooperative, Gina leads a multimillion-dollar business that employs more than 250 people. She is dedicated to maintaining a strong corporate culture and has begun a transfer of ownership through an ESOP to her teammates.
Schaefer’s big passion is for developing urban markets, supporting small businesses, and helping women to succeed in all aspects of the hardware industry. She has tirelessly focused on national efforts to increase the federal minimum wage and to pass legislation to strengthen antitrust and monopoly laws.
Always striving to be creative, think differently, and make a difference, Gina received the Women Who Mean Business award from the Washington Business Journal and the Top Women in Hardware & Building Supply award. She has been recognized as an industry Top Gun by the National Retail Hardware Association, honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal as one of its Women Worth Watching, and recognized by Hardware and Building Supply Dealer as one of 2016’s People of the Year.
Gina serves on the Corporate Board of CCA Global and the nonprofit board of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and she previously served as a member of Ace Hardware Corporation Board of Directors and on the nonprofit boards of House of Ruth and Think Local First DC. Learn more at recoveryhardware.com.
LAURIE GILLMAN opened East City Bookshop in 2016. She's lived on Capitol Hill for 30 years with her husband, various cats, and three daughters who will call out anyone who's from the suburbs but says they're from DC.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
East City Bookshop, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast, Washington, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 25.49