A 9-year-old boy from Southlands couldn’t go trick-or-treating last night as he was recovering from eye surgery so Halloween came to him—and in a big way.

William O’Donnell suffered an eye injury while taking in the fireworks at a Canada Day celebration last summer, an injury which resulted in three laser surgeries and him missing out on summer after spending 45 days on bed rest.

It was later determined that he had a tear in the retina which meant surgery last Wednesday. The recovery regimen called for two more weeks of complete bed rest—either lying down on his side or face down with his head between his arms.

All this meant no Halloween.

His parents posted a request to the community Facebook group called “Southlands Families” that people stop by the house and leave a treat for William. They did, but the bag they left outside to collect the goodies was stolen earlier.

The family took to Facebook again to let everyone know what had happened.

Dad Cody O’Donnell says the response floored them.

There were two people on the step, there were cars stopping and people getting out to give treats. They had enough items to fill a queen-sized mattress.

It was a stark contrast in humanity after the first bag of treats had been stolen.

Cody says there are a lot of amazing people in the world and that he could write for hours about the experience—situations such as nurses surprising William with gift bags and a stranger knocking hundreds of dollars off a gaming PC.