Trending
WARREN -- Nature or nurture is an age-old question, and sometimes it's a bit of both.
Jennnifer Hoerig-Cline was born on April 19, 1971, at St. Joseph Warren Hospital. She was the third daughter of David and Loretta Hoerig, and grew up in Newton Falls but now lives in Ravenna.
Cline said as a child she remembers playing with wooden blocks of various shapes, playing with Barbies and sewing clothes for them from old dress socks with lace around the top.
"I was always interested in fashion. I swear I was only 5 when doing this. I can't believe my mom let me use a needle and thread," Hoerig-Cline said. "I also enjoyed creating artwork of all kinds. My parents lovingly called me 'Jenny the mess maker.'"
Cline and her sisters were close growing up and did almost everything together -- playing kick the can, bike riding and going to the nearby park. Some of Cline's favorite memories include "swimming at West Branch in the summer, and in the winter dad hooked our sleds up behind his Jeep and pulled us on back roads."
Nature and wildlife draw her in. Cline recalls when she and her sisters were asked by her parents what the girls' favorite part of a trip was when they were very young and they all said, "the squirrels."
Always an active person, during junior high and high school, Cline was a cheerleader and took some dance lessons.
After graduating high school, Cline went on to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and worked at Nine West shoe store for about five years. She left there in part because of having her daughter, and helping care for her mom when she got sick.
Cline worked for a dental clinic and then the Cadle Co. in Newton Falls, where she became interested in law. She studied law at The Paralegal Institute through Brighton College and worked as a paralegal.
Cline met her husband at a friend's wedding followed by several "accidental" meetings, and they married in 2003. She and her husband lived in a historic farmhouse built around 1818 that has been in her husband's family for some 80 years.
Cline's husband, Gary, worked for Kent State University in the maintenance department and enjoyed working on their home. In 2008, after preparing to do some major work on their home, Gary was on his way to work one morning when he was struck by another vehicle and died. He was 44 and left behind a wife and two children.
Cline said she is "not handy at all. Artistic, but not handy." After her husband died, many of his former coworkers came out to the house and volunteered their time and skills to finish the project that Gary had started that summer.
Cline eventually learned to do many of the repairs that her husband normally would have done. While doing some do-it-yourself projects and crafts, Cline began sharing them on Facebook.
"What I really like to do is repurpose items, especially ones I find on the side of the road because that was something that was meant for the landfill," she said.
She had a friend in the police force who asked her if she could make him a flag from a pallet like one he had seen somewhere. This was just the beginning of what eventually would become a full-time career. Cline made him one, but she wasn't happy with it. However, she hung it in her office at the Summit County Prosecutor's Office and invited officers to sign it.
Between online posts and the signed flag in her office, Cline had orders coming rapidly and she named each style after the officer who had inspired it.
Over the next five years, Cline made about 500 flags using pallets. Each pallet flag is special because she began adding hidden messages of scripture, gratitude and prayers for protection.
"I decided to call my flag business 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' which is from the gospel of Matthew. It is a scripture passage written on the back of every flag," she said.
In Cline's story on YouTube, she gives credit to the companies who allowed her free access to pallets to use for her flags. Although the pallet flags / thin blue line flags are something that Cline is very proud of, she no longer makes them.
One day, she had three different sizes of a pallet flag ready at the same time so she asked her son to take a picture of her with them. She grabbed her DeWalt drill to pose with and this resulted in a comment from a friend on Facebook saying that DeWalt should use it in their ad campaign.
Little did she know that the next week, DeWalt would start a "Show Us Your Tough" campaign. Cline worked to spread the word and "through the support of my entire hometown, family, friends and officers, I had the most votes from the beginning of the contest all the way to the end." She continued to interact with everyone to drive votes, won the contest and was named Ms. DeWalt.
"DeWalt has a slogan 'DeWalt tough.' For me that means 'DeWalt may get tired, DeWalt may get discouraged, but DeWalt tough never quits," Cline said.
She is making some wooden crafts for the B&K Farm market on Elm Road.