(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Generation Rising."

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez.

Here at "Generation Rising," we have conversations that explore solutions to the inequities our diverse communities face every day.

Tonight we'd like to welcome Don Wright, Chris Cruz and Selene Aria from Button Hole Golf located in Providence.

An abandoned gravel pit turned instructional golf course, it now stands as an urban oasis that opens doors and creates opportunities for the community's youth.

Chris, Don, Saline, thank you so much for being with us here today.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- For our audiences at home, why don't we run down the line and tell us your name and what you do and your connection at Button Hole?

- So, hello, I'm Don Wright, I'm the executive director, been at Button Hole for 10 years, but actually was there when we first started 25 years ago.

- Great, thank you, Don.

- Hello, I'm Selene Arias, I'm a sixth grader at Achievement First Providence Middle School and I'm a Button Hole kid.

- [Anaridis] Nice to meet you Selene.

- And my name is Chris Cruz.

I am a Dean of Students at Achievement First Elementary School, and I've been there nine years.

- We have learned so much about Button Hole prepping for this, but a lot of people are still learning about the wonderful gems in our city in Providence.

Tell us what a typical day at Button Hole looks like and where you're located.

- Well, first of all, we're located between Hartford and Manton Avenue, kind of right off of Route six there in Glen Bridge.

It was a 26 acre gravel pit, as you mentioned, that was turned into a a nine hole short golf course, driving range, clubhouse.

And really to kind of revitalize that area of the community and be a real asset for the community.

- Your community partnerships are a big part of what you do.

You mentioned that this is a golf course that's open to the public.

- Yes.

- And because of this, you're able to also operate as a nonprofit?

- That is correct.

I think we're kind of unique as a nonprofit in that regard, that we do, our first mission is working with the kids and making golf and accessible, especially for the youth of Providence and the surrounding areas that wouldn't normally have a chance to play golf.

We have instructors, we have equipment, we have the facility, and we really build this by partnerships.

So we have partnerships like with the Achievement First School, we have 'em with the San Miguel School, we have 'em with a lot of the Providence schools, we have 'em with Providence After School Alliance, we have 'em with the West End Community Center, the rec centers in Providence, the Boys and Girls Club.

And through those partnerships they bring the kids in or we have access with our van to bring the kids there and just provide instruction, equipment, and run the programs throughout the school year and throughout the year itself.

- You mentioned Achievement First, which is where you go to school, you're a sixth grader, how did you learn about Button Hole, and when did you first start playing golf?

- I learned about Button Hole when I had a golf lesson for gym class and I started liking it.

And Mr. Cruz started a after school program at Button Hole and then that's when I started to learn and love Button Hole.

- And what grade were you in?

- I was in the third grade.

- In the third grade, so you've been playing now for three years.

What do you enjoy most about it?

- I enjoy driving the ball, making it go far, trying to get into the hole.

- And Chris, you actually are a big part of why Selene is playing golf.

Tell us about your connection to Button Hole through your work at Achievement First.

- Yeah, so I spent my first eight years as a phys ed teacher and my goal was to just get as many kids involved in golf.

As a player, I spent a lot of time at Button Hole practicing and then I met Don and he asked me to become an instructor, which was like my ultimate dream was to become a golf instructor.

And so that relationship built into like what I did at the schools.

And so my thought was to bring golf to Achievement First, which I put a group of kids together.

And then from there we built a really good relationship with Button Hole and then we brought, over the last couple years, a lot of kids over there.

- And your age range for the children you serve really is very expansive.

You say children as young as seven years old can be a Button Hole kid.

- Right, we target kind of boys and girls from seven to 17 and we do have a little program for some five and six year olds, but seven to seventeen's really what we do.

And it's great working with the kids, elementary school kids, middle school kids, high school kids.

We've helped at Achievement First, they have a high school team now that competes in the Interscholastic League, which is wonderful, providing them with equipment.

And Chris and Josh are the coaches and it's a wonderful experience for us.

- How did that start?

I know that you've been in operation for over 20 years now, right?

You're a founder, you were part of that first group of folks who got it up and running.

How did it go from being a short course that's open to the public, to having an intention to serve the city's youth?

- Well, the mission has always been first and foremost to work with the youth of Providence and the surrounding areas, especially those kids that wouldn't normally have a chance to play.

So we've really taken affordability off the table and accessibility.

We have a van so we can pick kids up, take 'em to the courses, bring 'em to Button Hole for practice, whatever the case might be.

Mr. Ed Mauro, successful business person, who was a fantastic golfer, got this idea or vision 25 years ago and then raised $3 million to turn this 26 acre gravel pit into a golf course and a facility that's open to the public and really to really help the neighborhood as well.

His business was in Providence, he really wanted to give back and to help grow the game as well.

Something that he loves and that I love, and I've been playing golf for over 50 years, and just love to do it.

- And you think about diversity in the game of golf and the first words that people often tend to think about is Tiger Woods, that's what they associate with diversity.

Why is it so important to grow the game, as you say, and make sure that it is representative of the communities we live in here in this country?

- Well, the game's first of all, it's a lot of fun, and it's a game that also teaches a lot of life lessons.

So, I mean, I grew up playing a lot of sports as Chris did, and then when you play golf, golf's also a game for a lifetime.

You could use it in business to meet people.

And it's just one of those things that you also learn these life lessons of integrity and honesty and if you hit a bad shot, like kind of dealing with the frustration.

And that's kind of the real magic that happens at Button Hole when we're working with the kids.

You're working with them one-on-one or in small groups on the driving range, or you're taking 'em out on the course and doing that.

Those are the life lessons and the social interaction skills that we can use forever.

And it's great to be able to share that with all the other kids.

- And you've grown a really expansive network and impressive network across the schools.

You were talking about the golf simulators that you have and was that how you first came across Selene?

You noticed a golf simulator in your school?

Tell me about that.

- So there's a big room with a simulator in it and I first try to hit the ball and it tracks the speed, the rotation, so you get to learn from it.

- And then you were like, I think I can do this.

And how is it different from playing on a simulator and then playing on the course?

- It's different because if you just play on the course, like you get a little bit more experience.

But if you play in a simulator you could learn more and see like what speed or how you can make it straight so it's easier to go in.

- Yeah, and off camera Chris, you were mentioning how the simulators were key in really getting a lot of kids interested, and you noticed a difference from before the simulators were inside the schools and then after, talk to us about that.

- Yeah, so one of the things I talked to Don about was sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to bring a lot of kids to the course who generally might not be interested because they don't know the game of golf yet.

And so I thought the easiest thing and the best thing to do is bring golf to them and then we get them to get the golf itch and then eventually transfer them into the to the real golf course.

And when we first started we had a handful of kids who were really interested, Selene being one of them.

And after that we took a poll and there was roughly 140 kids who showed some interest after we started the program at Achievement First.

So putting together that simulator, having the technology, the immediate feedback, it's really exciting for the kids and it tied them into golf like right away.

- Yeah, and how many children do you have engaged in this school right now?

- Right now we have several dozen who are either in our summer program, who then get shipped over to, not shipped over, but vanned over to Button Hole.

And so we have several dozen kids that we have constantly in that simulator using that space.

I'll save their data and we can look at it again.

So Selene's data from last year, we can take a look at it, and see where she is and her improvements.

And that's like the really key thing is that the kids get really excited to see how they've improved over the last like year or so.

- Yeah, so that is a tool to measure not only interest, but also growth.

So you're helping children kind of develop life lessons but also enhance their skill in the sport, right, Don?

- Absolutely.

And one thing that we found is, as Chris was talking about, it's a great way to introduce the game.

Because a lot of kids, especially now, are kind of tied to their phones and the video games and things like that.

And they're coming in and ask us, okay, what kind of video card's in that machine?

And they're really intrigued by the technology, which is something I didn't realize.

And it's great and you can start 'em out and you can get a lot of activity in a short period of time.

Being out on the golf course is a lot of fun, it's beautiful and you're walking a lot, but here you can hit a lot of golf shots in a short period of time and get a lot of instant feedback.

And as Selene's talking about, there's a lot of science in golf too, for some of the kids that wanna learn about that, trajectory and spin rates and all these kinds of things that can bogle your mind.

I mean, I'm a golf geek, so I'm really into it.

But a lot of the kids are really into that as well now - The simulators is that something new, how long have they been around and why did you come to that crossroads to introduce the technology to attract more kids to come?

- Simulators have been around for a while, but like a lot of things, they were very expensive, kinda like when personal computers first came out, they were very expensive and now there's some really affordable ones.

And we were fortunate at Button Hole, we received a grant from the Champlin Foundation and we put three of 'em in the basement, which was great.

We also received funding from an individual and we have one upstairs, so we have four in our building.

And then with Chris, we were talking about what we can do.

They're so close to us and they're such a great partner and he had the space and he has the kids there and the interest.

So it was very easy for us, we fronted the money to put that one in.

And the same thing we've done at Classical High School, but they had alumni pay us back.

We have one now at Times Square Academy, which is great.

We have one at the Met School and they love it over there.

And we have one at the YMCA up on the East Side, and we've received another grant to put some more in.

So that's how we're gonna grow and keep the kids involved in the wintertime as well.

We're very excited.

- How does this strategy, like in hindsight, you reflecting as someone who started out and now you're back and you've been with Button Hole, you say, for about over 10 years, right?

Did you ever think that it would become what it is now when you first started out with Mr. Mauro?

- No, and actually we were just chatting about that recently and I said, "Mr. Mauro what do you think about it now?

He goes, "All I wanted to do was provide a place for local people and kids who wouldn't normally have a chance to play, to play."

And he never envisioned that it would grow to be this big.

Simulators 25 years ago were a pipe dream for some people.

I wish we had known 'cause we could have built a higher ceiling in the basement and would've been even better.

But it's great, it's unbelievable.

And the game evolves, technology evolves and the activities and like you said earlier, Tiger in 1997, he became a pro.

2000, he had the greatest year of any golfer of all time, and he really brought golf to the forefront.

I mean all these athletes, we were talking like, Steph Curry loves to play and it's great.

Big Papi has a tournament, things like that.

And it's capturing the imagination of a lot of the youth.

And so now we're just providing a facility, an opportunity, that's what we're really all about.

- Opportunity, you talk about opportunity.

Selene is also part of the PGA Juniors league.

Selene, tell me what is it like to participate at that level?

- So you usually go in like on a Saturday or Sunday, use like the driving ring first and you have a little competition on the course to see like who's the best score.

So it's really good.

So you could see like your improvement and benefits.

- And what do you enjoy most about being at Button Hole?

What would you say brings you joy while you're there?

- I say all the people, like they give you pointers and it really helps your golf skills and learn like accountability.

- That's a big word for a sixth grader.

Chris, you're doing your job right, I mean like what is it to witness in real time just how much she's grown since you met her in the third grade, now she's in the sixth grade and you've kind of been along that journey with her.

I'm sure this is replicated amongst all of your students, right?

- Well she's making me look good right now.

She's been impressive since she was in kindergarten when I first taught her, when I was a phys ed teacher there.

But Selene is a perfect example of exactly what we're trying to do and just offer the game and hoping it sticks.

The idea is that kids have access and Don is a big believer in that, same as me.

We just wanna give kids the same opportunity whether they have big bank accounts or small bank accounts, we're like that shouldn't matter, or where they're from, what zip code they're from.

And so ultimately, just giving kids an opportunity to play, access, and then once like kids get really involved, like Selene, what are the next steps for them to grow themselves as a player?

And then hoping that Selene's playing in college someday, if that's what she wants.

- Yeah, what do you find to be the most rewarding as an educator yourself, having been a Button Hole for some time now, what's most rewarding to you?

- The most rewarding thing for me is when a kid finds me in the hallway and they're begging me to play in the simulator.

I'm a pretty busy guy at our school, but if Selene sees me in the hallway and says, "Hey Mr. Cruz, can you take me to the simulator?"

Like to me like I've done my job of like spreading some interest, especially in the game of golf.

And that just shows me that they're picking up on some of the things that we're being able to offer them.

- Yeah, and that's kind of like half the battle, right, Don, getting them interested and then you actually make it easy for them to get to the golf course.

Tell us about all the different programs you run out of Button Hole.

- So we have basic instructional programs and we partner with the schools and community groups and we'll bring them over, we set aside.

A typical class is as an hour and a half, and the basic initial group of sessions would be six one and a half hour sessions.

And we generally have a one to five or one to six teacher to student ratio.

So they get a lot of personal attention.

We have clubs for them to use.

We let them take them home during that period of time.

The kids that really show interest, we'll just let 'em keep the clubs.

And then they're all sized appropriately, so as they get bigger we swap 'em out for a bigger clubs 'cause that's really important.

And then we have advanced classes, we have opportunities like Selene was talking about, for the PGA Junior League.

So there's competitive opportunities.

We have our own junior league on Mondays at Button Hole.

We have a Women's League on Wednesday nights.

We do programs for veterans.

We also partner with the Special Olympics.

They come twice a week during the summer months and they have their big golf program there as well.

We do a big Drive, Chip & Putt.

We're a big qualifying site for the national Drive, Chip & Putt Contest, which is huge.

And there's other competitive opportunities through the Rhode Island Golf Association, which is housed at our building.

They run a lot of the state golf tournaments and they have junior tournaments.

There's something called the US Challenge Cup, which offers a lot of competitive opportunities for boys and girls.

Basically from seven to 17.

And as Selene was saying, there's also great opportunities, especially for young women, college scholarships in golf.

You don't have to be shooting under par, but just be a player and there's opportunities that way.

So we're very excited about all those things.

And like Chris says, when the we go pick up the kids and they're smiling, and they realize when they first pull in there and see the place, it's great.

I mean it's one of the few green places in all of Providence, it's 26 acres.

Trigs is close by.

They let us play over at Trigs and other local courses are now letting us play as well, which is great.

So we're creating opportunities, that's what we're all about.

- And access, right?

- Exactly.

- You have summer programs too.

I want to point to a recent article where you were quoted saying, Don, "We really wanted to make golf affordable and accessible, especially for kids who normally wouldn't come from money.

We really wanna have a place where kids can learn the game, have a lot of fun, be safe, and really put something back into the neighborhood."

Can you expand on how you put that into practice?

- Well I think the accessibility part, we had actually our board president and Chris Herd from Herd Chevrolet donated money and we got a van, 10 passenger van, so it's great.

The Achievement First School's around the corner.

So Chris calls me up, "Hey Don, can you come and pick us up?"

Right over there, five minutes away.

We work with the DelSesto Middle School, which is on Hartford Avenue close by, through Providence After School Alliance.

It's amazing because city school buses cost like hundreds of dollars an hour.

We can go pick kids up, we're insured, the whole thing.

We can go pick kids up for nothing, I mean it's our cost, we take care of that.

So the accessibility is off the table.

We get grants and we get donated equipment.

So we have clubs and golf balls and golf bags available for any sized kid to use and play, left-handed, right-handed, it doesn't matter.

And they're always welcome to come and use that when they come.

The nice thing about Selene's a Button Hole kid, so she went through that initial series of classes, now until she's 18 years old, as a Button Hole kid, she can come back and play for a dollar on the golf course or hit a bucket of balls for a dollar.

And if that's an issue, that's not a problem we'll give balls to the kids to play with when they go play in the tournaments.

Helping the high school team, we love to help a couple other Providence high school teams, high schools get teams, Classical has a team, but there's other schools available that don't have teams, we'd love to get them going as well.

- And through your summer programs, you also pay for a lot of the kids to be able to go for free, right?

- Absolutely.

Typically we'll have at least 1000 kids go through our programs, our six week programs.

And about 50% of those kids are scholarshiped and don't have to pay anything for that.

And yes, so affordability is not an issue, that's the last thing that we worry about.

We're very fortunate that we get great donations from, we've got a lot of money from CVS over the years, individual golfers.

So golfers kind of know when they give back, which is really nice, there's a affinity that way, and they know to help grow the game that way, it's been very, very helpful, and some local foundations, we've been very fortunate - I also noticed that some pro golfers actually visit the course.

Were you able to meet anybody or is there any exciting memory that you have from Button Hole in the last few years?

- I remember we gotta go to like another golf course, a pro golf course, and we gotta see a lot of pros and it's a lot of different sites to see, 'cause you could see all the different ways that they train and stuff like that.

- That's exciting.

What would you say to kids who are watching now and are like, "Hmm, maybe I do wanna try golf."

What would you tell 'em about your experience or why they should?

- I would say they should try it because if you really like it, you could go find a program and start to get better and better and maybe do it for college and work.

- Yeah, do you look forward to going to Button Hole?

What do you look forward to the most?

- I like to hit balls at the driving range to see how much farther I get each time I go or like how much my techniques have worked.

- You also said off camera, which I found very interesting that you like how calm everything is, talk to me about that.

- So when you start to hit to balls, like you feel a calm sensation like in your body and you start to get more serious and it's a good sight to see.

- Yeah, I mean it must be incredible to watch how these young athletes really progress through having connections to the golf course and also leaders like you who look just like them and are giving them that access to that opportunity.

What would you say are the challenges in creating a more diverse space for golfers?

- Yeah, ultimately it became accessibility, which is what Don and Button Hole has done a phenomenal job.

And so as I mentioned before, bringing golf to them was big with the simulators, 'cause there's times where students may not have access to actually getting to the golf course.

And I know that Don has offered up the van, but ultimately if we have several hundred kids who want to get there, a nine passenger of van is not necessarily gonna do it.

So the idea was let's get more kids involved by actually bringing golf to them first and then really generating that interest just like we did with Selene.

And then Don has put together a phenomenal staff at Button Hole, so when those kids do go show up at Button Hole, they say, "Hey coach Chris sent me here."

And so Tyler, everyone else at the staff at Button Hole welcomes them in, they train them, and they do a phenomenal job there.

- Yeah, we only have a few minutes left, but can you talk about or share with our audiences any exciting programs you may have coming up this year?

Or how can they connect with you to become involved?

- Certainly our spring schedule is posted now on our website at buttonhole.org, so you can check on that and register for those classes.

If you're part of an organization that would like to get interested or a school, you can just call us directly at 421-1664, or my email's on the website as well, that would be great.

We welcome those kinds of calls.

And referrals like Chris, we love having Chris get the kids involved from there or through Providence After School Alliance and through various organizations.

We're a neighborhood asset, we wanna make sure that, our dream would be to have local kids just riding their bikes over, they have their golf clubs over their shoulder, or they know the golf clubs are there and they're calling their friends or they come over, okay, we'll all meet at 10 o'clock at Button Hole like we used to do at the basketball courts or the baseball fields.

That would be a dream for all of us to see.

And I think it's starting to happen, which is really cool.

- Yeah, and I pose the same question to you as I did to Chris, what are those challenges?

How are you working to bridge the gap or where do you need help in making that dream a reality?

- Well, obviously, staying sustainable financially is always important.

We have the course which is open to the public, so that helps.

Donations always help.

One of our biggest things, the thing people ask what keeps me up at night is being able to find people like Chris in the schools or at the community organizations.

And we've been fortunate Kay Bullock at Classical High School loves golf and their principal loves golf.

Chris and his principal, Brianna, that really helps.

The Providence After School Alliance has been a great partner.

Keith over at Times Square Academy loves golf and we're getting the kids involved over there, places like that, the Met School, and that's really the key is.

And we have two great lead instructors, Tyler Piekarski, our head pro, and Arys Batista is our director of instruction.

And we have part-time instructors like Chris and Josh that really help out.

That's the biggest thing, and that's how we expand.

- Yeah, oh, it was great to meet all of you.

Thank you so much for the work that you're all doing.

Congratulations on being so determined and making it this far in your golf journey.

I hope to see you at Button Hole one day and maybe out on a PGA tour golfing.

That's the goal, right?

- Yeah, maybe a PGA pro.

- Yeah.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you, please come and visit.

- I will, I'd love to.

- It'd be great, thank you.

- That is all the time we have tonight.

We would like to thank tonight's guests, Don Wright, Chris Cruz, and Selene Arias.

You can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org.

And be sure to follow us on these social platforms for the latest updates.

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