Haley Osmond, 11, whose pricey hearing aids were stolen in a break-in, is seen yesterday with her mom Rachel Osmond and a bucket for donations. (Ken Armstrong, Sun Media)

Rachel Osmond has seen the best and worst of Edmontonians since her daughter’s hearing aids, worth $22,000, were snatched from her home during a robbery Tuesday.

The single mom is facing crippling debt as a result of the theft, but one by one friends and strangers have stepped up to help.

“People have come together and I’m so thankful,” she said today.

On Nov. 10, she was rushing home from work to pick up her 11-year-old daughter, Haley, and her eight-year-old son, Lucas, to go out for dinner with a friend. They left their Clareview basement suite around 6 p.m. When they returned around two and a half hours later, they noticed Lucas’ X-Box, its accessories and games were gone.

Although Lucas was devastated, the real blow came the next morning when Haley couldn’t find her backpack that contained the pricey external pieces of her cochlear implants, which she’s had since she was two years old.

That’s when Osmond realized the thieves must have grabbed the bag to conceal the X-Box.

“They didn’t even realize (the hearing aids) were in there,” she concluded.

The family went on a massive postering campaign around the neighbourhood, hoping the suspects might have abandoned the backpack somewhere. They also asked nearby businesses to scan their dumpsters and back alleys.

“My hope is to find the backpack, but I’m losing that hope too,” Osmond said, reasoning that garbage collectors have already come and gone for the week.

But it wasn’t long before Osmond’s friends began coming forward to offer help. One friend who used to work at the Blues on Whyte pub approached her former boss about turning their Saturday afternoon jam into a fundraiser for a new hearing aid.

“He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Osmond said.

The family decorated collection buckets to pass around at the popular afternoon show and Osmond will share their story at the Nov. 21 event.

This evening, another friend who throws annual costume parties, turned his Sherwood Park soiree into another fundraiser.

“(Haley) is excited and she’s really happy a lot of people are helping her,” Osmond said.

If the backpack turns up, they plan to donate all the money raised to the Royal Purple, a non-profit women’s organization that raises money for hearing apparatuses for families who can’t afford them.

But Haley - who is currently using a borrowed hearing aid from the Glenrose Hospital - isn’t the only one who’s seen an outpouring of kindness.

Another one of Osmond’s colleagues came to work Friday with a bag containing a X-Box, games and even plastic guitars for the Guitar Hero game for Lucas.

But the part of the kind gesture that makes her tear up? The co-worker is the brother of Sara Sanders, a 28 year old who was killed in a mysterious slaying in the city last month.

“I’m sure she would love for Lucas to have it,” he told Osmond.

Lucas was ecstatic.

“The X-Box was the least of my worries, but for him it wasn’t. He’s eight and he wanted his X-Box,” Osmond said. “I have amazing friends.”

If anyone spots the backpack, Osmond asks they drop it off at the nearest police station.

alyssa.noel@sunmedia.ca