North Bend author Gina Ehlin has written a book that helps kids through airports
"Emma & Friends, " a story about Emma's Airport Adventure was written by local children's author, Gina Ehlin, here shown with her buddy, Rallie, to help prepare children for travel through an airport. World Photo by Madeline Steege
By Linda Giles, Features Writer
New children's author, Gina Ehlin, 43, has recaptured a part of her childhood by experiencing the peace she felt writing as a child. The former airport security worker witnessed the stress of children going through airport security procedures and decided to write a book to help prepare them for their travel through an airport.
A petite, brown-haired woman wearing blue jeans and sneakers, Ehlin's blue eyes shone as she talked about her life's journey and the beginning of her new career as author of a series of children's books, "Emma & Friends."
She grew up during the 1960s and 1970s on Whidbey Island in Washington. The second youngest of three sisters, she describes life on the south end of the United State's longest island as quiet, safe and somewhat boring. Neighbors didn't live nearby and homes dotted the island amidst tall evergreens. The island is connected to land by a bridge on the north end. A ferry traveling through there wasn't chilly waters of the Puget Sound brought visitors and residents alike to the small town of Clinton, where she lived. There wasn't much to do for a teenager. The local movie theater opened two nights a week and a bowling alley in town catered mainly to league bowlers.
"Those were quiet days. You were within five miles of the water from anywhere on the island and you knew everyone," she said adding, "You could hitchhike around the island and knew it was OK."
Her parents sent the kids to church on Sundays and they had a Christian background. Ehlin admits she rebelled and didn't reaffirm her life to Christ again until years later.
As a child she enjoyed writing her thoughts on paper. She describes herself then, as being very quiet but outgoing.
She said, "Writing was my escape. I wrote a lot of poetry in junior high and high school. I still do journaling. It brings me pease - depending on the circumstances."
Ehlin graduated from high school in Clinton with 90 other seniors in the Class of 1979. She has since lived in Alaska, California and Hawaii.
She met her future husband, Tim Ehlin, a building contractor. The couple were married in Everett, Wash., in 1990. They have two grown sons, Tim, 23, and Tom, 20, both college students. The couple moved to the Bay Area and settled in the Empire area.
"I worked as a secretary at North Bend Medical Clinic from 1991 to 1998 in the secretarial department for the administrators. I left there when the boys were 11 and 14 years old."
She stayed home to be more available to her children for awhile and even thought about home-schooling, but instead, in 1999, she went to work at the community college for a few months as a receptionist/secretary. While working at the college, an opportunity opened up at her church for a part-time secretarial position. Ehlin got the job and worked there part-time for two years. Even though she went from working a 40-hour-a-week job at a decent wage to a 20-hour-a-week job at minimum wage, Ehlin, who is deeply spiritual, believed that was what God wanted her to do.
"The Lord provided our family with all our needs," she said.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the economy, Ehlin's husband came to her and asked her to prayerfully consider a full-time job. She began submitting resumes. Ehlin saw an ad in the paper for a job having something to do with airport security. She called for an interview. Sixteen people were going to be selected to go to training in Seattle for a company called Olympic Security. She was selected and after the training, returned to work in the North Bend Municipal Airport.
Ehlin witnessed how difficult it was for the children and even some of the adults to go through the new safety procedures.
"What really inspired me was watching kids go through the airport security," she said.
Children didn't understand why they needed to give their cherished teddy bears up or hand their coats to airport workers to pass through security or why a loud noise might sound and they would be checked with a metal detector wand. For some, just traveling to the airport was upsetting enough. So, Ehlin created a children's book about a young girl and her travels through an airport. The spunky main character of the book explains all the airport procedures and makes them sound like fun.
Speaking of the curly-headed, blonde, blue-eyed, little girl who is the main character of her first book, "Emma & Friends: Emma's Airport Adventure," Ehlin said, Emma was laid on my heart by the Lord."
Ehlin used her computer to search online for an illustrator. Nina Ayzenberg of Maryland is the illustrator who brought Emma alive in the colorful pages of the book.
"The book is written in a simple format easy for young children to read," she said. My sister, Annette, a teacher, proofed the picture book targeted for children as young as 2 and as old as 8. My thoughts are it will be a useful tool to help prepare children for their travel through an airport."
The aspiring writer's primary work now is "Emma & Friends." She plans to write a series of books with Emma as the main character.
