HANA, Maui — More than 300 free pairs of shoes are being slipped onto the feet of Hana's young and old.

The shoes are a gift from www.Onlineshoes.com, a Seattle-based company that has donated many hundreds of shoes, valued at $150,000, in the past five years to the remote east Maui community.

Hana Youth Center executive director Keoki Kalani remembers a meeting in 2003 with www.Onlineshoes.com chief executive Dan Gerler. After a tour of the center and a briefing on the work it does for youngsters ages 9 through 17, Gerler offered to provide 200 pairs of shoes — one for every young person receiving services from the nonprofit at the time.

"Gee, that's different," Kalani said of his initial reaction to the first gift.

Since then, the shoes — which come in all sizes and designs, from athletic shoes to boots and best dress — have been fitted onto the feet of some of the community's most needy children and their families.

The most recent shipment — 300-plus pairs — was delivered in January to the Hasegawa General Store on a pallet via UPS. Since then, Kalani and his staff have been taking inventory so that every pair is accounted for before they are distributed.

The youngsters at the center share them with their families and with senior citizens, who have their own activity center just down the street from the Hana Youth Center.

"We feel blessed to have this offered to us, and we also want to share it," Kalani said.

Gerler launched www.Onlineshoes.com in 1996 to increase sales over his brick-and-mortar shoe stores.

Profitable since 2000, www.Onlineshoes.com says it continues to enjoy revenue growth, with a 10 percent increase in 2008.

In a telephone interview, Gerler said he first vacationed in Hana some 20 years ago and has returned at least once a year for a visit during the past decade.

"It's a place I've grown attached to," he said. "It's wonderful, a nice community to share this with."

On an invitation from a Hana resident, Gerler took a tour of the Hana Youth Center in 2003. "I saw it as a perfect opportunity to give back to a community I truly love. ... I just get a lot of joy out of it," he said.

Gerler said he's been particularly impressed by the thank-you notes Hana's young people have sent him. In one letter, a young girl in a family of seven children said it was the first new pair of shoes she'd ever had.