By Kathleen Acuff

Arman Jaffer, 9, left, and Nick Lillie, 10, show the bracelets they are selling to raise money to aid survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Nick Lillie, 10, was getting a haircut in late December when news of the Indian Ocean tsunami washed over the shop’s TV screen.

“I saw the devastation and the people separated from their families and all the children who died, and I said, ‘I got to help,’” Nick said last week.

His friend Arman Jaffer, 9, also saw the disaster on TV and immediately wanted to do something to help the survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami.

Arman and Nick, fourth-graders at Oak Elementary School, neighbors and “really good friends,” decided to buy bracelets with “Relieve + Recover + Rebuild” on them and sell them for $2 apiece. The first 500 red silicone bracelets, with little hearts between the words, quickly became fashion statements - their classmates couldn’t buy them fast enough.

With their parents serving as channels into corporate offices and their neighbors responding enthusiastically to their sales pitch, the boys sold 1,250 bracelets by the end of the first week of February. They ordered a few hundred more to meet the demand, but were still awaiting shipment last week.

Having raised more than $2,000 to help survivors of the tsunami rebuild their lives, Nick and Arman met with UNICEF volunteers at their Palo Alto office and gift shop on Valentine’s Day and presented them a check for $2,000.

“It was exciting giving the check to the UNICEF volunteers,” Nick said. “I heard on TV they want to build 100 houses in each village, and I hope our money will be used to build a house to house three families. It costs $1,500 to build a house there.”

Arman said, “I hope they build a house or give money for food and water because they don’t have too much, because all of it was washed away by the two waves.”

It’s a tribute to the boys’ enthusiasm and salesmanship that the UNICEF volunteers they met with plan to sell the “Relieve + Recover + Rebuild” bracelets in their Emerson Street shop.

The boys were invited to speak about their tsunami fund-raising at the annual general meeting of the United Nations Association Mid-Peninsula Chapter Saturday at the First Baptist Church in Palo Alto.

What have the boys liked most about their project?

“I helped all those people. It makes me feel really good about what I did,” Nick said.

Said Arman, “I’m helping, and I feel really happy and proud because now I know that although I’m only 9, I can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Nick added that he would tell the readers of the Town Crier, “You should do it, too. It’s a great experience for life, and you’d be helping a lot of people across the globe.”

To buy a bracelet, e-mail lilliepadusa@hotmail.com.