Local business and family growing

Entrepreneurs come in all sizes and shapes, and Coeur d'Alene native and business owner Jamie McGinnis Green looks a lot like a mother of three just weeks away from giving birth to No. 4.

The Dalton Gardens resident has deep roots in the community, as do her parents, Mike and Patty (Crowe) McGinnis - all were born and raised here. Jamie met her husband, Robert Green, when they were teens working at the Dockside. She graduated from Coeur d'Alene High School in 2001, Robert from Lake City in 1999. The pair headed to Boise State and in 2005 they married.

"I started The Pat-a-Cake Baby LLC (www.thepatacakebaby.com) in 2008 when my hubby was in law school at Gonzaga," Jamie said. "He was staying up way too late studying and I wasn't too great at falling asleep without him, so I picked up a hobby: sewing.

"By then, we had a 5-month-old daughter and I had made the decision to stop teaching school to stay at home with her. I made very simple things and put them on Etsy in March (2008). I hired my first seamstress in May of that year and my second seamstress in November and haven't sewn since." Jamie notes that she was never a great seamstress anyway.

Later in 2008 she purchased the domain name www.babycottagegifts.com from a local brick and mortar store, Baby Cottage, which was going out of business. Jamie said it came as quite a surprise to receive an order from ABC's, "The Chew" this past Friday. It wanted an outfit overnighted that will be presented as part of a chocolate-themed gift basket on the air (KXLY 4 @ noon) tomorrow. Jamie sent off a Beba Bean hooded knit sweater and pants set.

This talented wife and mother to Sophia, 7, Scarlett, 4 and Samuel, 2 (and soon Sullivan, who's due on Oct. 21) may not be a great seamstress but she has created a great team for her online store as well as creating jobs for local seamstresses hand-making products that are sold all around the world.

Facebook helped a rescue when JoJo, a 2-year-old Boston Terrier, dashed into the woods at Lookout Pass while his "mom," Kathleen Kennedy, was picking huckleberries in the late afternoon this past Thursday. Kathleen frantically searched until darkness fell and then headed home to Coeur d'Alene, heartbroken.

About 9 p.m., Kathleen's husband, Mike, posted a plea on his Facebook page for anyone in the Silver Valley area to keep an eye open for the beloved family pet. That's when the Facebook miracle was set in motion - 74 friends sharing Mike's post on their own pages and on and on.

The next day hope sprang eternal when Norbert Lane spotted JoJo on the mountain and was able to get close enough to read the phone number on her tag before she took off again. The Kennedys at least knew their pet had survived a night in the wilderness.

Chris Lilienkamp and her mother decided to take a walk with their dogs at Lookout after seeing the Facebook post. They found JoJo, put her on a leash and called the Kennedys. A wonderful reunion took place midday. Mike reported with the good news that JoJo was scratched up, exhausted and staying close to home.

Last Wednesday - after the Main Street column about Silver Beach, the Beachouse and the INNtrepid appeared in The Press - I received an unexpected phone call that was a perfect adendum. It was 82 years ago on Wednesday that a local couple were attending a Labor Day barbecue at Silver Beach. About 6 p.m. the woman told her husband it's time to get to the hospital, the baby was coming! Off they went, and at 10 p.m. their son Duane came into the world. What a delightful conversation with Mr. Hagadone, on the 82nd anniversary of his birth, reminiscing about his parents Burl and Beverly and his family's long connection to Silver Beach.

It seems like a lifetime ago that our world was changed on Sept. 11, 2001. Our daughter, Sarah, was one year on the job as a flight attendant that day, and I will never forget our horror and fear as we watched the terrorist attacks unfold. Sarah faced her own fears and continues as flight crew today.

So many heroes on Sept. 11 ... first responders, everyday citizens and the 33 pilots and flight attendents on American Airlines Flights 11 and 77, and United Airlines Flights 175 and 93 whose final moments were spent protecting their passengers.

In these 13 years, in this country, I've gone through airport security lines where armed soldiers stood guard. I've been subjected to searches of my body and my belongings. I've had a sleepless night or two as the mother of a daughter whose airline career takes her in and out of major airports and puts her in the air most days of the week. Never once, not for a single minute have I blamed anyone other than the terrorists who murdered our fellow citizens in New York, Washington, D.C., and in a Pennsylvania field.

The horror of Sept. 11 should not be reduced to rhetoric or symbolism. Those images, both print and electronic, should be kept fresh in all of our minds. They were real people, with real families who were murdered. And those are real people wearing the uniform of our armed forces, fighting and dying for freedom on foreign soil this very moment. Let your thoughts and prayers be with them all.

Happy birthday today to Gregg Gain, Mary Ellen Denton, Tami Martinez, Mark Browning, Helen Terway and Annette Kennedy.

Tomorrow, Jim Pierce, Hannah Epstein, Cameron Epstein, Cyndie Brubaker, Jeremy Siegler, Kelly Hanson, Mark Compton and Darrell Dlouhy take another trip around the sun.

On Friday, Norman Oss - aka Stickman - Rose Backs, Tiegan Horton, Nancy Adam and Polly Gava will blow out the candles.

Saturday celebrants are Kelly Sheffield, Chris Mann, Ryan Bartlett, Thomas Vigil, Marianne Buley, Mary Langenberg, Stormy Purcell, Lori Turchik, Laura Fierro, Joy Seward, JulieAnn Sparrowgrove, Cher Rhoads, Nicole Hamilton, Janell Mollett, Gina Davis and Debbie Margraff.

On Sunday, Connie Glass, Diane Lemas, Wayne Dust and Anna DeTar are having birthdays.

Claudia Brennan, Brad Medlock, Jerry Deitz, Jean Wright, Shannon Englander, Kathie Colosimo, Angie Purcell, Liese Razzeto and Nick McDonald mark their birthdays on Monday.

Tuesday it's party time for Jeff Thompson, Courtney Hurt, James Hoialman, Charollett Morehouse and Terrie Lynn Gonzales.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2013 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.