PROVIDENCE A packed white event tent set up about 25yards down the driving range was just about all that could stop the action on this perfect summer Tuesday evening atButton HoleGolf Course.The sweeping green hills, rippling ponds and smattering of bunkersmake fora sharp contrast to thesurroundingcity landscape. This former gravel pit has been a gem for 25 years, the vision of areabusinessmanEd Mauro and a group of trusted lieutenants.A learning center in Mauros name was dedicated on this night, with honorary co-chairmen Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon back in their home state. Theirextensivecharitable work over three decades came in part with Mauro as an inspiration, and he celebrated with friends and familyduring a scheduled 90-minute speaking program on Aug. 4.This night is so special for me, Mauro said. Anditsspecial because of the people as I look around.More: These public golf courses are the best you can play in Rhode IslandButton Holecame of age around the same time the PGA Tour started its First Tee program. The mission of both organizations is similar tohelpkids from urban areas gain easier access to golf.Button Holehas welcomed some 25,000 participants to its lesson programs sinceits formal opening in 2001.Not every kid grows up with a mom and dad who have a lot of money who can join a club you can play, Andrade said. How are you going to get into the game? You get into the game with places like this.You have great teachers. You can hitballs. You can go play. You can learn the game. And then you can take it from here.Megan Khang is one such player she was a toddler whenButton Holeopened and practically grew up on the property. Her father, Lee, was a mechanic in the city who would drop his daughter off at the course on his way to work and pick her up on the way back to their Massachusetts home in Brockton. Khang is an LPGA Tour winner, a formertop-15player in the world and a four-time Solheim Cup team member for the United States.Shes a Solheim Cup player one of the best players in the world coming out of this little place, Faxon said. Its beautiful.Mauro used his connections in business and with the state to develop the 26-acre parcel, a process that started in the late 1990s.Itsgrown into a nine-hole par-3 course with two putting greens, a sand bunker and chipping area, multiplesimulatorsand office space for the Rhode Island Golf Association. Benefactors include former CVS president Tom Ryan,who partnered with Andrade and Faxon fortheirCharity Classic and raised more than $25 million for local organizations over a two-decade run.I dont think you ever would have wanted tocome inhere unless you were riding your dirt bike, Faxon said. I dont even think Ed envisioned what was going to happen to see theamountof kids who have come through here and how its changed the lives of these kids.Last weeks Junior Amateur at Pawtucket Country Club offered an example of howButton Holecontinues to grow the game. Ishaan Catone finished runner-up, a Cranston native with fellowButton Holemember Kailer Louangxay on his bag. Johnston sistersElizabeth Kue and Kamryn Kue wereamong the top three stroke play qualifiers in thegirlsfield after All-State spring seasons with the Panthers.Its not myButton Hole, Mauro said. Its theButton Holeof a lot of people particularly the kids who came here.bkoch@providencejournal.comOnX: @BillKoch25This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Brad Faxon, Billy Andrade help Button Hole celebrate 25 years of golf