When Hayley Orlinsky of Chicago learned on the news in March that doctors and nurses were running low on masks amid the frantic early weeks of the COVID pandemic, she wanted to help. She ran to her room and made a friendship bracelet. She told her mom she wanted to sell the bracelets to make money for one of the hospitals.

With a video on Facebook, the idea took flight, and Hayley’s rubber band bracelets began to sell. She thought she might make around $200. As of Dec. 16, the New York Times reported that she had sold about 9,000 bracelets and had raised more than $22,000 for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Hayley said she would continue making bracelets until COVID was over.