Shoeshine man on a mission

It takes special skills to be a shoeshine man.

Not only do you have to buff away the scuffs of the streets, you have to smooth clients' rattled nerves. Listen. Nod along.

Leon McLaughlin, 53, has been doing that for more than a decade at Seattle's Columbia Tower — all the while keeping his mind on a bigger problem.

Today, McLaughlin and members of Federal Way-based World Vision will travel to Bolivia to see to the installation of water-filtration machines in 10 hospitals and 10 schools.

They will be joined by a crew from NBC News. A producer from the show spotted a Seattle Times story about McLaughlin in July, and wanted to chronicle the project and its impact.

"There is such a need," McLaughlin said the other day. "Two million children are dying a year, 1.2 billion people are hurting from waterborne illnesses. We have to bring that number down to zero."

It's a tough thing to wrap your mind around: A man who hunches over people's feet all day, offering one of life's little luxuries, who then stands up and travels thousands of miles to get the neediest what everyone deserves: potable water.

"You can give a person food, clothes and medicine," he said, "but without clean water, what good is that?"

McLaughlin, in Seattle for 31 years, has always had a mind for business. He sold coffee machines in Vancouver, worked for the Seattle Repertory Theater, has a real-estate license and has owned his shoeshine stand since 1989.

All fund his love for travel and people. He has chatted up Australian Aborigines and a woman in Mexico who told him a story that changed his life.

An American tourist once asked to use her bathroom. While he was in there, he accidentally drained all the water from her tub. It was all the water she had for the month.

It moved McLaughlin to enroll in online water-systems repair-and-maintenance classes from Sacramento State.

He founded his own company, LAM (his initials and an acronym for Land and Water Maintenance), to bring a water-filtration machine to developing countries. LAM buys the machines for $8,500, then donates them to World Vision. McLaughlin takes a small commission, which he says he puts back into the project.

LAM's first success was the installation of a filtration machine in Bolivia in 2007. The machine generates 740 gallons of clean water per hour.

Back home, McLaughlin takes advice from customers. Money people, business people and $600-per-hour lawyers who give him free counsel — along with $5 for the shine.

"The only thing I ever did was get Leon to exercise his potential," said retired attorney Robert Radcliffe, 81, who met McLaughlin when he represented him in an automobile-injury case and stayed close. He's a regular customer.

McLaughlin mainly sees the potential for other lives.

"With this trip, we can let the world know that we have all these children dying," he said. "This situation is urgent."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Safe travels.