PITTSBURGH Shoe-shine man puts in legwork to raise money for sick children

His philanthropy has been featured in the local and national press.
PITTSBURGH (AP)-- Just as he's done for more than two decades, Albert Lexie gets out of bed at 5 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, takes two buses to travel about 20 miles to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and makes his rounds, offering shoe shines for $3 a pair.
Also every Tuesday, Lexie leaves the hospital and dutifully marches, duffel bag in hand, to an office building about three blocks away. There, he hands over his weekly donation to the hospital's Free Care Fund, an offering made up of Lexie's tips, gifts from his customers and the money he's collected through canisters placed at businesses near his home in Monessen.
Although Lexie makes about $10,000 every year, he's donated more than $89,000 since February 1981 to the fund, which helps pay for medical care to pediatric patients regardless of their families' ability to pay.
Lexie's current annual campaign -- which runs from February to February in honor of his first donation -- has raised more than $4,000, less than $6,000 away from his goal for the year.
His goal
Most people who know Lexie say he's a man of routine and a man of goals. Ultimately, he wants to raise more money than Jerry Lewis, the actor famous for his Labor Day telethons that raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
"It's like I say all the time, 'Jerry's got his kids and I got mine, and they're all right here in Pittsburgh,"' Lexie told a regular customer, Dr. Michael Painter, as he buffed the pediatric neurologist's brown wingtip shoes.
On a recent donation drop, 61-year-old Lexie, wearing a worn red button that says, "Please Help Albert's Kids," handed over bundles of change and bills collected from his customers and canisters to Jill Daly, an events specialist for the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.
At the end, Lexie counts out his own donation -- $57 in tips -- while telling Daly about a stranger who walked up to him while he was eating lunch Monday at a fast-food restaurant and gave him a $5 donation.
Lexie is something of a celebrity around Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, where the hospital is located, and in the Westmoreland County community in which he lives, thanks to his generosity and the media outlets that have put the spotlight on it.
Lexie's shoe-shining career started about 46 years ago, when he was 15 and made his first shoe-shining box during a high school shop class. He soon started to travel from store to store in the communities near his home and even opened a shop for a short time.
Around that time, Lexie got in the habit of watching an annual telethon that benefits the hospital and was hosted by a local news anchor, the late Patty Burns. Lexie set his sights on meeting Burns and thought the best way to do it was to make a generous donation to the telethon.
As his donations grew, officials invited him to shine shoes in the hospital. Donations and the attention they garnered seemed to snowball from there.
He's been featured in newspapers around western Pennsylvania as well as in People magazine, Reader's Digest and even The National Enquirer. Lexie's story was also featured in a book by former Ohio Rep. John Kasich, and that led to appearances on "Oprah Winfrey Show" and the "Today Show."
Gift
Last month, the hospital honored Lexie by giving him a custom-made cart to replace a 30-pound box he still occasionally lugs around the sprawling building.
But after the accolades, the television appearances and the photo opportunities, Lexie returns to the routine of shining shoes and collecting money. He has more than 40 regular customers at the hospital alone.
"You know when Albert is in a department because everyone is walking around in their socks, waiting for their shoes to be shined," hospital spokeswoman Melanie Finnigan said. "Some people would think it's weird, while I just think, 'Yep, Albert's at work."'