By Curt Cavin
curt.cavin@indystar.com

Ron Hunter figured if he could coach a couple of hundred IUPUI basketball games over the years wearing shoes, he could surely coach one without.

That stand for charity in 2008 was a solo act; now it's a band.

Some 3,000 men's and women's basketball coaches at all levels across the country will follow Hunter's feet in the days leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. Hunter's game is tonight at Conseco Fieldhouse; Butler's Brad Stevens will do so tonight at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Indiana coach Tom Crean and Purdue coach Matt Painter do not plan to participate.

"What impresses me is 3,000 coaches doing this because that tells me there are a lot of people on the street trying to make a difference," Hunter said.

The nonprofit group at the center of this is Samaritan's Feet, which since 2003 has gathered shoes for the world's underprivileged children. Hunter hoped to gather 40,000 pairs in his first attention-grabbing effort. At tipoff he had 140,000 and $30,000 in donations.

With the race on and his enthusiasm high, Hunter increased his goal to 1 million pairs, and he has already made one trip to South America with his basketball team to distribute some of them. Now 2 million pairs and a summer trip to South Africa are in his sight for 2010.

"We'll get that," Hunter said. "It's really mind-boggling what we've done together. It's changed my life."

He is also focusing on domestic needs and will help distribute at least 2,010 shoes to children in Indianapolis during Final Four weekend, April 3-5. Thousands of shoes have been taken to Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago and Houston, among other cities.

Barefoot for Bare Feet, as this drive is known, is embraced by the NCAA and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Hunter's message on the Web site of Samaritan's Feet is "to provide a voice to the children."

Samaritan's Feet officials estimate 300 million impoverished children in the world. Their goal is to put shoes and socks on 10 million of them within the next 10 years.

As part of the process, each foot is washed in an effort to teach a biblical story of faith, hope and love.

"It's kind of become a movement that's amazing," said Indianapolis-based Todd Melloh, one of the group's 25 full-time employees.

Corporations such as Nine West and Finish Line have aided the cause over the years, and Finish Line's program that runs through the Final Four raised $35,000 in its first four days.

In addition to bringing new pairs of shoes to basketball games such as IUPUI's tonight against Oral Roberts, people can have a $5 donation added to their cell phone bill by texting "shoes" to 85944.

This week, Samaritan's Feet is hoping to raise $10,000 to ship 10,000 shoes to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Hunter acknowledges feeling the weight of the project, particularly as he recovered from last summer's back surgery. The telephones at his home and school seem to ring each day with another group in need or another donor looking to get connected.

Shoes get dropped off at his office. Hunter gets offers to speak to more groups than he can schedule. More than 400 media outlets have published his story.

"I don't know if there's a day gone by that I haven't done something for the cause," said Hunter, who now hears "the Shoe Guy" as he passes through airports. "I'm in it now, and I feel the pressure to help every kid, and you can't do that, but you try.

"I've seen what poverty really looks like, and I had no idea. Seeing that makes it harder because I want to do more than what we're doing, and we're doing a lot."

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