A Close-up Look at People Who Matter : Brothers Craft a Way to Help Quake Victims

They say necessity is the mother of invention. To Joshua and Andrew Kaye, who were trying to kill time in their front yard after the Jan. 17 earthquake, boredom was the mother of invention.

While their parents were sweeping glass out of their Woodland Hills home, the brothers ages 7 and 5 hatched an idea that, so far, has raised nearly $4,000 for the American Red Cross.

With only ingenuity and a couple of boxes of pipe cleaners, the boys have created a craze in the philanthropy fashion world. Everybody who’s anybody has a pipe cleaner bracelet in their accessory wardrobe. Mayor Richard Riordan, that trendsetter, bought two. The fuzzy bangles are all the rage in Supervisor Ed Edelman’s office, with their fashion colors and dollar donation price tag.

The boys stumbled across their temporary niche in the garage hours after the ground shook.

It was the day of the earthquake and their lives were disrupted. No school, no television, no standing in the refrigerator door. The boys were banished to their sunny lawn but soon little entrepreneurial bulbs lit over their heads.

First they opened a lemonade stand. Brisk sales, but a little too traditional. The lemonade stand closed.

Next came an art gallery with works in chalk, colored pencils, paint--anything that had fallen within reach.

They suffered a little as artists should. And the gallery closed.

With the next project, a market selling broken shards of dishes, the boys discovered the laws of supply and demand. Then, the china shop closed.

The next day the boys found some pipe cleaners. Soon child-sized bracelets littered their lawn.

By now, kids on this tree-lined street knew they were among the lucky ones. They knew other children were sleeping in parks or in cars. And the entrepreneurs turned into philanthropists.

“I told my dad and mom I wanted to make bracelets to help the kids in the earthquake,” Joshua said.

A bracelet for a buck was the original idea, but the boys took any donations people would offer.

“I sold a bracelet for a penny ‘cause they had lost their house,” Andrew said.

“First we started selling them in front of the house,” he said of the multicolored bracelets.

“Then we sat in front of Von’s and started selling them,” Andrew said. “But we got tired of that.”

Nearly two months later, the boys have sold bracelets to politicians, sports teams, even Dodgers President Peter O’Malley.

They have sent letters to U.S. senators and to President Clinton asking them to buy bracelets.

Fourteen Los Angeles area schools are participating in the program after being instructed by the young brothers in the art of braceleting.

Joshua and Andrew’s father, Alan Kaye, estimates the project, now dubbed Kids Helping Kids, will bring in $10,000 once all the schools finish their sales.

“It was just such a wonderful gesture,” said Bonnie Bishop-Moren, Andrew’s principal at Woodland Hills Elementary School. “The little thing they started turned into a pretty big thing.”

“It’s very creative and very ingenious,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Peggy Hinz. “It’s not a program they started and a few days later tired of. Their enthusiasm is incredible.”

Well, after two months Joshua is getting a little tired.

“It’s getting sort of boring these days. We go to every school and show them how to do it,” he said. “We sort of need help.”

But Joshua is holding out for one hope--that Wayne Gretzky, the king of Kings, will wear one of his bracelets.

“Now that would be cool.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please address prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.