Albert Lexie donated more than $200,000 of his savings to fund medical care for uninsured children.
It doesn’t matter much what a man has. What matters is how willing he is to share what he has with those who need it. One big-hearted man in Pittsburgh had only one thing: a skill for shining shoes. He dedicated all of himself to this skill and received a bounteous reward in return. Then he did something unexpected, he gave it all away, to help children, reported TODAY. The story of Albert Lexie, also known as the “Shoeshine Man,” is inspiring for everyone who aspires to add a little smile to the world.
For over 30 years, Albert worked fervently as a shoeshiner at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Children's Hospital. Twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, he boarded three buses to reach the hospital, hauling his purple shoeshine push cart. He would wake up long before the Sun rose, and traverse a herculean journey from Monessen to Pittsburgh. From 1982 to 2013, he polished the shoes of doctors, executives, and staff members in the building, charging nominal prices anywhere between $2 and $5, humbly collecting tips from those who offered.
With one shoeshine at a time, Albert had collected a monumental amount totaling around $202,000. With this gargantuan money, he could turn around his life the way he wanted. But he didn’t use the money for himself. Instead, he donated the massive tip to the Children's Hospital’s Free Care Fund, which provides medical care to uninsured and underinsured children in Pittsburgh. "His kindness and generosity were and continue to be an inspiration for all of us," Christopher Gessner, president of the hospital, said in a statement, and added, "He represented the true spirit of volunteerism and philanthropy and the contributions he made to the hospital far exceeded the tips he donated.”
Albert was not just a kind human, he was absolutely passionate about his shoe-shining craft too. He started learning about shoe-shining when he was just 15 years old. Former Monessen Mayor Louis Mavrakis, told NPR, that he knew Albert "since he was kid" when the younger boy first began his one-man shoe-shining business. "He would shine shoes in town and hitchhike to Charleroi to shine shoes there," Mavrakis recalled, adding that Albert was a selfless man who lived a modest existence.
"He never drove an automobile. Never had any luxuries. He either walked, hitchhiked, or caught the bus wherever he worked and he did that until he stopped shining shoes. The whole time he just gave everything away." Albert’s generosity wasn’t limited to one Pittsburgh hospital. He also "rang the bell" for the Salvation Army every year at Christmas time — a service for which he was once honored by Mavrakis.
“He is the perfect example of how small incremental acts of kindness can impact millions of people,” the hospital’s president told TODAY. In the later years of his life, Albert was widely recognized for his generosity. According to CNN, he was awarded the Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Citizen in 1997, the Outstanding Philanthropist Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2001, and the National Caring Award by the Caring Institute in 2006. In 1999, his hometown proclaimed “Albert Lexie Day” and the Port Authority of Allegheny County awarded him a lifetime bus pass.
He was also honored at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 2010. But fame didn’t distract him from his goal, "I wanted to see the kids get well," he would say, per TODAY. In 2012, the shoeshiner released a book "Albert's Kids," documenting his experiences from three decades of working at his job. He retired in 2013, and in October 2018, passed away at the age of 76.
"You probably won't find anybody else like him — one of a kind!" Mavrakis told NPR.
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