Six years ago, Gina Sachs began a business called tinyacts.co that gave her an opportunity to spread kindness to people by selling kindness cards, T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Now, the Wellsville resident has added a children’s book to her business. She became an author for the first time after writing a children’s book called “Ellie & Hip Share Kindness.” Sachs made presentations of her book at the Wellsville and Montgomery City public libraries on July 18 and 24, respectively.

“I really didn’t imagine it for myself, but it all kind of fell together,” Sachs said. “I created some kindness cards in 2021-ish. Then, I knew I wanted to make a kids deck. So along with making the kids deck of kindness cards, I created the book, Ellie and Hip, to go along with it. It’s a story about Ellie and Hip sharing their kids’ kindness cards throughout the day to their parents, their school bus driver, their teacher, their friends, their neighbors and things like that.”

The book is 28 pages long and was published in the beginning of July. Sachs said it took her about a week to work on her book.

“I was just jotting it down,” Sachs said. “I wrote it in rhyming format so it would sound like a poem. I made some minor changes here and there. It all just came together really quick. I was surprised.”

The book, which was published in the beginning of July, was illustrated by Kansas City resident Sarah Hickman. Sachs said she got connected with Hickman after searching for children’s literature artists on Instagram.

“She’s incredibly talented,” Sachs said. “I don’t think things happen by mistake because me finding her online was incredible. Illustrations can make or break a book. I honestly felt like she was able to capture the vision that I had in my head and put it out on paper for me.”

Sachs sells four decks of kindness cards. They are available in five themes. Each theme contains one description card and 53 action cards.

“My cards have been featured in three subscription boxes over the United States and Canada, so they’re getting spread around a whole lot,” Sachs said. “With the book and the kids deck, I’m just now really getting them out and people are picking them up and sharing them.”

Sachs also sells 13 different T-shirts and 12 different sweatshirts. They are shipped from California for nearly $5.

“The T-shirts and sweatshirts are printed on demand,” Sachs said. “So when a customer orders a shirt, a company in California prints them and mails them directly to them. I design them all, but I’m not making them. They’re being shipped by another small business out of California.”

Sachs grew up in Martinsburg before moving to Wellsville after getting married in 2007. She used to work as an at-risk educator at a juvenile detention facility before she decided to start her business in 2017.

“After I had my son, we decided that it would be better for me to stay home and take care of our kids than putting so much time and effort into trying to correct other people’s children,” Sachs said. “I loved the at-risk group. That was my passion. But it can be heartbreaking work and is definitely hard. I enjoy substitute teaching now, filling in when I need to and still staying connected with the youth.”

Sachs has been a stay-at-home mom for 12 years. Her husband owns a construction business in Wellsville.

Anyone who wants to purchase Sachs’ book, kindness cards or apparel can go to her business website, which is tinyacts.co.