At one point he spotted a corner he thought would make a good spot for a hot chocolate stand, and then it dawned on him - what a great way to raise some money for relief efforts.

So on Wednesday, he, his brother, two sisters and a couple of friends braved a steady rain, stood alongside a road in this east Seattle suburb with their laminated "Hot Chocolate for Tidal Wave Relief!" sign and raised $255.

Most of their cardboard signs were rendered useless by the rain, but they didn't let it discourage them. They got started in late afternoon and kept going until the sun went down, selling about two dozen cups of hot cocoa.

"If people hadn't said, 'Keep the change,' or made $20 donations, we probably would have raised about $30," Thomas said.

Diane Wilson (no relation to Thomas) spotted the young crew of fund raisers in front of her house, offered them some umbrellas, gave them a $10 donation and told them knock on her door if they ran out of hot chocolate - which they did.

"I got all the packages of hot chocolate I could find ... and made if for them real quick," she said. "They were just so thankful."

One of the boys told her: "'Don't worry, we're not going to divide up the money. It'll be going toward the relief effort.' I said, 'Oh, don't worry. I know it will."'

Thomas said he plans to donate the money to World Vision, a Christian relief organization based in Federal Way, Wash.

"It's so horrid, so terrible - such a huge loss of family. And I couldn't do anything about it," the home-schooled sixth-grader said. "Then I did this hot chocolate stand and it made me feel better."