There are days when Tim Stanoch, 63, goes out the northern Minnesota DAC’s front door to make sure there’s no church steeple on top- he says with a chuckle.
The longtime youth minister is the new executive director of Ita-Bel-Koo DAC which serves 16 people with disabilities in Northome, Minn. As the only administrative person, he works with a staff of five. About 70 miles from the Canadian border, Northome is 43 miles northeast of Bemidji.
Stanoch is one example of the idea that one need not come from the disability field to lead and thrive in the profession. He served students for 37 years, at Catholic congregations around the Twin Cities and in central Minnesota. Stanoch was also a church business manager, music teacher and he took students on dozens of retreats.
Call it fate, God’s leading, or moving up one’s plans but the man whose main skill is relationships found fitting work in a town of 200 people. And it happens to be near a place his family has been preparing for decades.