Helping children sleep without terror

In a seemingly nonthreatening golf course community in Camden County, Benjamin and Susan Hemme have started a business chasing off monsters.

Their weapon: A plump, orange, big-eyed, big-eared plush toy named Zimbobo with green swirls on its belly and back that emit ultrasonic waves that scare away monsters.

An accompanying 28-page book, Goodbye Monsters, explains how it works.

The Hemmes are a long way from quitting their day jobs - he, 38, is an aerospace propulsion technician; she, 35, is a marketing consultant at United Parcel Service Inc. Besides, they say, their entrepreneurial success as toy designers and authors won't be measured solely in dollars, but in nights of terror-free sleep achieved for children.

"It's crazy where life takes you," said Susan Hemme, with a 28-inch-tall Zimbobo - 30 inches if counting the ears, big to better hear monsters, of course - seated between her and her husband in their Blackwood home.

Their small business targeting fear originated from the horror of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

On that fateful day, Master Sgt. Benjamin Hemme's one-weekend-a-month Air National Guard duty became a full-time job in fighter jet maintenance that continues today.

In 2010, the Hammonton native was deployed to Iraq. There, he encountered a visibly upset airman who had been Skyping with his wife and young daughter.

"He was always the one who scared the monsters away, and his daughter couldn't sleep anymore," Hemme said. "He had told me he was upset there was nothing he could do. It really touched me."

It was another three years before the Hemmes, who married in 2009 and have no children, got serious about writing a book. It followed another deployment for Benjamin Hemme, to Germany in 2012.

From couples with children they heard the same complaint - that separation was tough, particularly at bedtime.

"We wanted to do something we could give the airmen and the children to strengthen the bond and lessen the distance," Benjamin Hemme said.

Design of their story's hero took 18 months and seven iterations before they agreed on the 9-inch version of Zimbobo that comes with each book.

"Zimbobo has arrived to make your fear of monsters go away!" the story says. "Place Zimbobo in the scariest place. You'll wake up saying, 'Goodbye Monsters' with a smile on your face."

The story's main character, Ben, puts Zimbobo in a closet - where Susan Hemme was certain the monsters of her childhood resided. Specifically, in one at her grandparents' house in Waterford, Camden County.

"I would tell her to say, 'Boo!' to them," Susan's grandmother Anne Rusnak said last week. "I had nothing to help her with. This book is a very good idea."

Agreed, said Andrew Savicky, a retired lieutenant colonel and currently director of psychological health on the base where Benjamin Hemme works.

He did not know Hemme before the technician gave him a copy of Goodbye Monsters for his review. Savicky has been using it ever since in his work with military families and has referred it to other mental-health professionals.

Children of deployed parents often translate their fear of never seeing them again into monsters, Savicky said. Trying to simply dispel the existence of monsters is "not helpful," akin to telling someone who is sad not to be, he said.

Zimbobo - and Goodbye Monsters - acknowledges children's monster fears, which helps ease anxiety "with something very tangible," Savicky said.

Managing anxiety early in life is important to help ward off depression and hopelessness later and to build resiliency and self-esteem, he said.

The Hemmes have invested about $30,000 in their fear-fighting venture, self-publishing to get to print faster. The book was released in October.

 Of the initial 2,000-copy run, 1,000 books have sold, mostly on www.GoodbyeMonsters.com, for $24.99, and for $29.99 on Amazon.com. The Hemmes offer it for $19.99 at weekend festivals and fairs.

"We absolutely would love to get into retail stores," Benjamin Hemme said. "That is the next step."

215-854-2466 @dmastrull