PROVIDENCE — How does a group of senior golfers celebrate the 50th anniversary of its involvement in a program to help college students?

The Rhode Island State Seniors Golf Association (RISSGA) is doing it by getting involved with a new initiative to help even younger kids.

The RISSGA has been helping the Burke Fund, the state’s caddy scholarship program, for a half-century. Now it has decided to help at the Button Hole Short Course and Teaching Center, too.

The RISSGA is a private organization made up of 190 members. They are almost all players from private clubs, serious golfers. They have different abilities on the course, but they have one common trait: They have been successful in life.

For 50 years now, the RISSGA has been donating to the Burke Fund, the program named in honor of John P. Burke, the former Rhode Island champion from Newport who was killed in World War II. Five years ago, the association stepped up its involvement.

“It started back when Jerry Sansiveri was president,” said Jack Nixon, the current association president. “We endowed a scholarship. We do it every year. We’re proud to have a Burke Scholarship awarded every year in the name of the State Seniors.”

Edward Donahue, a senior at Saint Anselm; Thomas Kirinsky, a junior at URI; Robert Marshalewski, a sophomore at Northeastern, and Neil Toracinta, who is about to begin his freshman year at URI, are the current Burke Scholars being helped through college by the RISSGA endowed scholarship.

The RISSGA asks that the Burke Fund honor someone who “is a well-rounded student who has achieved distinction in academics, exhibits good citizenship both in school and in the community and has financial need.”

In June, when the RISSGA held the first of its two annual tournaments, that one at Pawtucket Country Club, association members were made aware of a new initiative. This one does not involve money. It asks something more important of the members — their time. Members are being asked to donate their expertise not just in golf, but in life.

The targets are the kids at Button Hole on the Providence-Johnston line.

Button Hole has won much acclaim for opening the door to the game, and all it brings, to so many who otherwise would not have the opportunity. Last year alone, Button Hole had nearly 2,000 youngsters go through its program.

“We’ll have about 2,200 or 2,300 by the time this year is finished,” said Dave Hanna, Button Hole’s executive director.

Hanna happily welcomes the RISSGA initiative. He has been working with Nixon and Ted Coogan, who is the liaison for the mentoring program, to put it into operation.

“It’s a great idea,” Hanna said. “It’s something that can help the kids in our program, but it also can show the men another side of life, too.”

Nixon sees it as a way of sharing abilities beyond golf.

“Most of us have been very fortunate in life and have enjoyed and benefited from the impact the game has had on our lives,” he wrote to association members in explaining the program. “We hope you will be able to spend some time helping out kids who, without Button Hole, would not have the chance to learn and to play the game of golf.”

The seniors will take part in four aspects of the Button Hole program –– helping with instruction for the beginner and intermediate programs; helping at the summer camps at the course; taking part in a new program, to be held in October, that will allow Boy Scouts to earn a golf merit badge through participation in a camp and tournament at Button Hole; and assisting in the advanced golf program at the course for those more advanced in the game.

Button Hole kids are just now beginning to make an impact on the state golf scene. Juliet Vongphoumy made history when she became the first girl to win the Interscholastic League championship this year. Last week, Anthony Gesualdi won the first-division championship in the R.I. Golf Association Junior Championship. Jamison Randall, Junette Vongphoumy and a number of others have made an impact on the state scene, as well, and many more are on the way, Hanna says.

The RISSGA has pledged an annual donation of $2,000 for the next five years to help with Button Hole programs. But it is making a much bigger pledge with the mentoring program.

pkenyon@projo.com