By Anthony Galloway, NBC News producer
Our journey to Bolivia began almost six months ago, with a tip from cameraman Geoff Nelson. Correspondent Chris Jansing and I had just worked with Nelson, reporting another story for the Nightly News “Making a Difference” series, when he alerted me to the story of Leon McLaughlin. On a recent vacation to Mexico, McLaughlin was personally impacted after learning about the growing number of people who lacked access to clean drinking water. He decided to start a water purification system distribution company and a foundation designed to bring clean water to needy people in the developing world. More than one billion people worldwide have no access to clean drinking water.
McLaughlin is not a wealthy man. He shines shoes in one of Seattle’s most prominent business towers. With help from non-profit World Vision, McLaughlin arranged to put six water purification machines to work in a poverty-stricken town near Trinidad, Bolivia, a part of the country plagued recently by civil unrest and widespread flooding.
With approval from our executive producer and after a security review by NBC, we started making arrangements to travel to Bolivia with McLaughlin. He expected to spend a week meeting the people benefiting from his purification systems and those who would be part of his next project. Our travel date was set for September 10. However, when Chris Jansing and I arrived at the airport and attempted to check in for our flight we were surprised. Our flight was canceled. The American Airlines representative told us many parts of Bolivia had erupted into violence (a disagreement over gas profits being redistributed from the wealthy to the poor) and there were fears the country could devolve into civil war.
We called McLaughlin and reached him on his cell phone, already on a layover in St. Louis en route to Bolivia. Following an afternoon in the air, he had to turn around and return to Seattle. He was disappointed but not deterred. McLaughlin went back to work at his shoeshine stand and we stayed in touch over the months that followed. Finally, in December, we got word that it was safe to travel to Bolivia. Our flight plan lasted 26 hours and took us from New York to Miami to La Paz and, ultimately, our final destination: Trinidad, Bolivia. A quick car ride the next morning brought us to the town of La Nina. At 8:00am the town’s residents were already waiting and eager to meet McLaughlin. They welcomed him with hugs, kisses, and tears. It was clear this unlikely philanthropist had made an immeasurable impact in their community. “Now we can eat, we can cook, we can take baths,” one young girl told us. “It’s incredible.”
Many of the “shoeshine boys” in Bolivia wear masks to cover their faces, embarrassed that they have to shine shoes to provide for themselves and their families. At the airport, on the way home, McLaughlin stopped to have his shoes shined. He left the young man a significant gratuity. It was an appreciated gesture of support and understanding from one shoe shiner to another.
