Joan Silvestro

Joan Silvestro first walked into Booktrader of Hamilton as a young mom looking for affordable reads. At the time, she was working in a doctor’s office, but she loved how the store felt—cozy, personal, and full of possibility. When she saw a “For Sale” sign in the window, she went home, talked to her husband, and with a little extra money from refinancing their home, they decided to take the leap.

Joan has owned her neighborhood bookstore, one of the few independent used bookstores in the area, for over 22 years. Originally opened in the 1980s, the store has long been a gathering place for readers from all over. Joan, a former medical technician, never set out to be a business owner. She was a Booktrader customer first, drawn in by her love of books at a time when she couldn’t afford to buy them. “I just wanted to share that love,” she says. “Everyone is a reader. They just have to find the right book.”

But in 2023, just days before Christmas, Joan arrived to find part of the ceiling collapsed from a roof leak. Water had flooded the floor and knocked over a fully stocked bookshelf. “It had been leaking for a while, but I couldn’t trace where it was coming from,” she says. “It just kept getting worse.”

First, she turned to her bank, but the interest rates were too high. “I’d already dipped into my savings. I couldn’t afford those payments.” That’s when someone from Hamilton Township recommended that she contact UCEDC.

“I didn’t have an accountant or a financial team, but the process was surprisingly easy and fast,” she says. Within a week, she was approved for a 0% interest microloan. It covered urgent repairs without pushing her further into debt, and gave her the space to keep serving the community she loves. “UCEDC gave me breathing room. It saved the store.”

Now she recommends UCEDC to others. “They help a lot of entrepreneurs. You want to start up. This would be the first place I start.”

Joan isn’t just preserving a bookstore. She’s keeping a space where people feel seen. “I want to bring people together again,” she says. “That’s what this place is about.”