MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — A police department is asking people to donate to a family of nine children who watched their mother die of a suspected drug overdose in southwest Ohio.

The Middletown Police Department says on its Facebook page that officers were so disturbed by the situation that they decided it’s “time to make a difference.”

Police say two suspected drug dealers took money from the woman Wednesday and left her to die.

The Facebook plea says police will take “anything you are willing to donate,” including clothes, coats, blankets, food, toys and appliances. The children, five girls and four boys, range in age from 1 to 14.

One woman donated $9,000 — $1,000 for each child.

The Facebook post describes the children’s father as a “hard worker” trying to make ends meet.