Matt Dumba helps family whose vehicle stalled on cold Minnesota night
A couple of weeks ago Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba donated more than $11,000 to an Australian wildfire relief fund, and after playing an NHL game Monday night he again stepped up with another perfect example of Minnesota Nice.
Dumba, who logged more than 21 minutes of ice time in a crushing last-second loss for the Wild earlier that night, put on his Good Samaritan hat to help a man, woman and child whose car stalled in the middle of the road on a frigid Minnesota night.
The heartwarming story is best told by the man who drove upon the scene, Nicholas Swanson, whose Facebook post has more than 450 shares as of midday Tuesday.
"Tonight as I was driving home, I noticed a car stalled in the middle of the road. It wasn’t running, no lights were on, and a small gas tank was hanging out of the side of it. I saw that someone had stopped and pulled their car around to help so I also stopped to make sure everything was okay.
"As I was walking up to the cars, I immediately recognized the guy that had stopped to help as Matt Dumba from the Minnesota Wild. I eventually learned that Mr. Dumba had already gone to the gas station and got a gas tank with some gas for the gentlemen so he could get his car started.
"It was 4 degrees outside and this gentlemen had his wife and his kid in the vehicle. We helped jump start his vehicle and the smile and amount of joy was priceless as he hugged and thanked us. I can’t help but think of how many people didn’t stop, drove right by, and how helpless they probably felt sitting there getting colder and colder.
"After grinding 20+ minutes on the ice and with all of the preparation and hard work it takes to play in the NHL, it would’ve been easy for Mr. Dumba to drive by just like the other people did. Instead, he went out of his way to help these individuals that he didn’t know so they could be warm and make it to where they needed to go."
Swanson said Dumba "didn't want the recognition," but in a world where negativity often forms sports narratives, Dumba is helping to put a positive spin on things in Minnesota and beyond.
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.