ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Look between your couch cushions and empty out your change jars…it’s “Pennies for Patients” time at Robertsdale Elementary School.

Benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Alabama/ Gulf Coast Chapter, the fundraiser began on Monday, January 10 and will end on Friday, January 28.

All students in Pre-K-6th grade are encouraged to participate and were given their own special box for collecting not only pennies, but nickels, dimes, quarters, dollars and checks from friends and family members.

“We have collected $284.91 so far and the kids are bringing in all kinds of different coins. One of the first grade teachers, Mrs. Sawyer, is giving out treats for bringing in money. We even had some kids bring in play money. It was so cute. At least they are thinking about it and that’s good,” said Lauren Sanders, RES office secretary.

Vision Bank of Robertsdale is providing their services by counting the money daily and the class who has collected the most money will receive a pizza party, Sanders said.

This is the first year RES has participated in “Pennies for Patients” and Sanders said, “We are always having fundraisers for our school. We thought this would be a great way to give back to a worthy cause and give back to the community for a change. Central Baldwin Middle School did it last year and raised $3,000 so we wanted to do it here too.”

According to a letter from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society’s School and Youth Program, this service program, Pennies for Patients, has taken place for the past five years in Alabama and Florida and is in its 14th year nationwide. More than $100 million has been raised for research and patient services from this initiative.

All monies raised go to support the programs of the LLS and broken down, 76 percent go to program services (research, patient and community service, public health education, professional education) and 24 percent goes to supporting services (management and general and fundraising), according to the LLS website.

Leukemia and Lymphoma, both cancers affecting the bone marrow, blood and lymphatic (immune) systems are classified into four major types: Acute Myelogenous, Chronic Myelogenous, Acute Lymphocytic and Chronic Lymphocytic, with A.L.L.. being the most common in children, the LLS website said.

In the United States, 957,902 people are living with or in remission of leukemia and 628, 415 are living with or in remission of lymphoma and according to statistics, 43,050 adults and 3,317 children are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia and 74,030 adults and 8,490 children with lymphoma in the next year.

Founded in 1949, the LLS is the world’s largest nonprofit voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services, said the websire, and leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children under the age of 20 and the survival rate for myeloma is only 34 percent.

For more information or to make a donation, visit www.llls.org.