When ‘ordinary people’ step up to help

If Tim Stahl, of Greenfield, Minn., hadn’t stepped forward to put his money where his heart is, dozens of others would have.

Stahl read the story of Bernice Sulomna and her two sons, Ramsey residents and U.S. citizens who were stranded in Monrovia in July when a Nigerian airline canceled all flights in and out of Ebola-affected countries.

They needed $4,000 to get tickets on another airline and while people back home — here — scrambled to raise donations, Stahl stepped forward and footed the bill for the whole thing.

“I have kids; God has blessed me. And to see somebody separated from their family with no options, it just shook me to the core,” Stahl tells the Star Tribune. “I talked to my wife and I said, ‘I think I’m supposed to do something.’ And she said, ‘I agree.’ ”

“Are you a pastor or something?” Jacob Mayson, Sulomna’s fiance asked Stahl.

“No, I am an ordinary guy,” Stahl said.

And here’s the thing: Around here, he’s right.