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Stacy Bierma
When she was 17, Stacy Bierma departed Des Moines to
follow the Grateful Dead. "I traveled all over the US," she
says. "I sold beadwork on tour." Along the way, Bierma
discovered both Eugene, where she and friends rented a
house, and New York City's bead district, where she could
buy beads in quantity. "I sold off the excess to Deadheads,"
she notes. Bierma sold beadwork and beads at the Banyan Tree
in the mid-80s, then opened Harlequin Beads downtown in
1988. Hooked on alcohol and drugs since Deadhead days, she
quit abruptly in 1996. "I got into a bicycle accident -- it
sobered me up," she explains. "Then I got into recovery."
Harlequin has propered in the era of sobriety, growing from
one employee to 15. One third of sales occur online. Since
2000, Bierma has donated 10% of every Sunday's sales
receipts to the Buckley Center, a chronically underfunded
sobering-up and detox facility. She has also organized and
sponsored two benefit concerts for Buckley at the McDonald.
"My life is so much better -- I wanted to give something
back," she says. "The first year we had 200 people and
raised $3000. This year it was twice that."
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 10 April 2003
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