The “Vera” Hospice Fund and the House with a Lighthouse children's hospice have announced the start of registration for the tenth annual all-Russian charity event “Children instead of flowers”. The event is traditionally timed to coincide with the beginning of the school year, snob.ru reports.

The essence of the promotion is that instead of many individual bouquets, schoolchildren give the teacher one common bouquet from the entire class. The funds saved are used to help terminally ill children and young adults throughout Russia.

The money raised will be used to purchase vital equipment, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, special wheelchairs and chairs, medicines and expensive medical nutrition.

Over the previous nine years of the campaign’s existence, more than 384 million rubles were collected, which made it possible to provide assistance to 9920 families. A record amount of 74 million rubles was collected last year. The geography of the event covers 1300 settlements in Russia.

To participate in the event, you must agree on a decision with the teacher and parents of the class, and then register on the official website of the event. The size of the donation is voluntary, but the organizers suggest focusing on the amount that the participant would have spent on the bouquet by September 1.