He came out of nowhere to reinvigorate a forgotten neighborhood. I cannot calculate the odds against that kind of makeover, from this unlikely a source.

It took a small army to rebuild a Lower West Side neighborhood. But the idea to even try came from the enlightened sensibility of a single man. David Stapleton insisted on expanding what started as a made-for-TV, single-house resurrection into what unofficially became “Extreme Makeover: Neighborhood Edition.”

What makes the whole thing even more extraordinary is the resume of the rebuilder. Stapleton is not an obvious choice when it comes to an inner-city revival. He lives in Hamburg, keeps a back office in Amherst and specializes in building suburban subdivisions.

Yet through the inspired commitment of this guy with suburban roots grew a flower that bloomed on tough city streets.

Give the suburban guy the key to the city. More to the point, give him the key to the region.

The TV show “Extreme Makeover” came to town last week. The family of Delores Powell on Massachusetts Avenue won a home redo. Stapleton’s company, David Homes, was asked to run the job. He agreed, on one condition: that they would not do just one house, but many. Anything else, he said, would be “unconscionable.”

“There is so much need in that neighborhood,” he said. “I realized this was my chance to step up and make a difference by inspiring people to help each other.”

We talked Tuesday in his small Amherst office. With his sky-blue eyes and etched 44-year-old profile, Stapleton could pass for a Ralph Lauren model. Signs of community consciousness surfaced earlier, with a run of “green-certified” homes and the donation of a rural barn to the Buffalo Zoo. But nothing on this scale.

“Like many other people, I love the city and Western New York,” said Stapleton, a classic fast-talker/fast-thinker. “But when we’re all busy doing our own thing, including building homes in the suburbs, we don’t pay attention to what’s happening in these neighborhoods.”

When the call came, Stapleton leapt to attention. He played ringmaster to an army of contractors, blue-shirted volunteers, church groups and activists that staged a West Side Woodstock of home repair. The weeklong “festival” obliterated boundaries between city and suburbs, between have-mores and have-lesses, between folks of various colors, sizes, genders and creeds. Some 100 families were helped, the fix-ups ranging from yard cleanup to—on dozens of homes—a new roof, porch or siding.

I do not want to get all Pollyanna-ish about this. But I can’t think of another story that better underlines the reality that we all are part of one community. The Kodak moment for Stapleton came when he took his three kids—ages 9, 7 and 4—to the site. Minutes later, they were playing ball with some neighborhood kids.

“It didn’t matter that they were from different backgrounds,” Stapleton said. “They were just kids, out there playing ball. That’s what this was all about. We’re all in this together.”

Like a lot of suburbanites, Stapleton has roots in the city—and emotional connections to it. His father owned small grocery stores in Buffalo; his mother was a nurse. The values they implanted were hammered deeper by the Jesuits at Canisius College.

Not coincidentally, Stapleton walked the same West Side streets 25 years ago, when he sold real estate to help pay for college. The streets have changed for the worse, although lately there have been points of light. Stapleton just came in with a constellation.

Give the man a hand. And while you are at it, hand him a hammer.