Tom and Janice Zellers have an idea that might just catch on in Coupeville.

It is Eagles Song Health and Wellness on Front Street, a store that is the brainchild of a former P-3 Orion Naval aviator and his wife, whose family owned five health food stores in Vancouver, B.C..

But before Tom Zellers was a Coupeville health and wellness store owner, he was a Naval aviator.

He flew P-3 Orions out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island so much, he considers himself “bound to Whidbey.”

He flew during the Vietnam War, though he doesn’t talk about it much.

In 1980 when Iranian students took 81 American hostages, Zellers flew in to try and get the hostages released. One of the hostages was Zeller’s old neighbor from Mount Pleasant, Pa. The mission was unsuccessful.

He flew to many countries and said he enjoyed his 10 years in the Navy very much, leaving as a lieutenant commander.

He said it was the Navy, years in the hospital business and his romance with his wife that brought him to a health and wellness store in Coupeville. And an accident.

“I decided to be a float-plane pilot and was studying for my license, staying in a hotel by Boeing Field,” he said. “A guy out in the parking lot was drunk, got into his car and plowed into my room at 70 miles per hour. I was pretty messed up.

“That was Nov. 15, 2007 and I decided to do something different. I met Janice in September of 2008. We met, fell in love, I got healthier and we decided to open this shop in Coupeville.”

As far as Eagles Song, it’s the first such store in downtown Coupeville and it has much to offer.

First is the “Green Drink,” a concoction blended in the store’s juice bar. It contains leafy greens, organic hemp and golden flax seed, other organic ingredients and fresh, organic fruit to taste.

Besides providing every vitamin a body needs, and other assorted health benefits, Tom swears it helps you lose weight.

“When I met Janice I was bigger than a horse. I basically adopted Janice’s healthy lifestyle, which is organic, natural and a healthy body, spirit and mind and I’ve been into daily servings of the Green Drink,” Tom said. He said he’s lost 100 pounds and dropped 90 points off his blood pressure and his cholesterol.

Janice said many of their products are gluten-free.

They have refrigerated coolers for drinks, juices, teas, shelves of gluten-free brownies and bread mix, honey, maple syrup, natural cosmetics and body products, natural oils, books, candles, vitamins, gluten-free chips and a whole assortment of other products one would expect to have to drive a ways to find, but instead it’s  in Coupeville.

With her years of experience opening five health food stores in Vancouver, Janice had the know-how for design and supplying Eagle Song Health and Wellness.

Tom brought the can-do attitude of a Navy flyer as well as years of experience as a hospital administrator at the University of Washington, where he also earned a master’s degree in health service administration.

He was also head of hospitals at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine, and was  executive vice president, president and chief operating officer of Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., among others.

He said he became convinced that health is not just the result of how hospitals treat people once they’re sick, but how people treat themselves with exercise, healthy eating and good habits for a healthy body, spirit and mind.

That concept was driven home by Janice when they met. Together they traveled, fell in love with Coupeville, and opened Eagles Song Health and Wellness.