Staff photo / Dan Pompili ... Jimmy Sutman, founder and director of daily operations at Golden String, center, cuts the ribbon on Gabba Camp, with staffers, supporters and Golden String clients. The new resort for adults with special needs opened officially in Coitsville on Thursday.

COITSVILLE — Everyone needs a getaway now and then, but for those with disabilities and special needs, vacations are not as simple as packing a bag and hitting the road. And finding a place with the right accommodations can be challenging and expensive.

Jimmy Sutman has a solution.

Its name is Gabba Camp, and for residents in and around the Mahoning Valley, there’s no travel agent or airfare necessary. It can be easily found along McCartney Road, a short drive from just about anywhere in Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Western Pennsylvania.

“This is pretty much like a hotel that we have more control over, where we can watch these folks when they need a break from their family, their families need a break, or medically their families can’t watch them, then they can come here,” Sutman said. “And then of course, vacation — we want our friends to have a good time.”

Sutman is the founder and director of daily operations of Golden String, as well as the founder of The Purple Cat and ISLE.

There are five cabins at the camp right now, and Sutman is still seeking funding for more, with hopes to have three pods of five cabins eventually, as well as a swimming pool, a lodge and possibly an amphitheater.

There’s also a greenhouse — with another one soon to be built that will include a test kitchen to serve the whole camp. Right next door is Farmer Casey’s Ranch, which is full of friendly farm animals: alpacas, donkeys, goats, ducks, chickens, peacocks, pigs and quail. He also hopes to add horses one day for equine therapy and for the clients’ and guests’ enjoyment.

Guests can go on the lake in kayaks or paddle boats, enjoy a walk through nature and make friends with Phil the golden retriever.

“We’re a very theatrical group, so we’d like to have a lodge with a fireplace and a stage so campers could perform typical camp stuff like you or I did when we were young,” Sutman said. “We want to go on nature walks, and make candles, and grow plants and do theater — and it’s about being outside, but it’s also about camaraderie and helping these folks form relationships.”

The Purple Cat and Golden String staffers guide clients who participate in the daily vocational training program in caring for the animals, working in the woodshop, and taking care of the cabins and grounds at Gabba Camp.

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Golden String began in 1999 as a nonprofit that just wanted to take people with disabilities to a baseball game or two. In the 25 years since, it has become an integral part of the special needs community in the area, providing a wide variety of leisure activities for disabled and challenged people.

“It quickly morphed into camping trips, vacations for adults with disabilities, and then medical transportation, and vocational training,” Sutman said.

In addition to working with the animals and learning woodshop skills, clients help run Golden String Radio, an internet radio station, as well as Joe Gallagher’s Lunch Bucket program out of Oak Hill Renaissance Place.

Several years ago, the owner of FirstLight Home Care of Youngstown met Sutman through Sutman’s father at Golden String radio, and liked what he saw there. He gave Sutman some funding through the Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation, where he was a board member, to keep the program going.

Then, when the foundation dissolved, Senchak told Sutman more funding might be available and asked him if he would be interested in residential care programs.

“I said yes, but I thought if we provide residential services, we’ll touch the lives of a dozen or so people,” Sutman said. “If we did a resort or a camp, maybe we could touch thousands of people that come and have great experiences.”

Sutman told Senchak that the biggest need, in his estimation, was emergency respite.

“We take care of people at The Purple Cat in the daytime, but a lot of their parents are elderly, and when parents have to go to the hospital, we inherit our folks for a time, and we need places to put them temporarily,” he said.

Senchak started to bring his granddaughter, Gabriella Berg, 13, of Poland, — who preferred to be called Gabba — to enjoy the lake and see the animals when she was about 2 or 3.

“I started explaining to her how important it is to give back to people with special needs,” Senchak said. “And when she was around 6, she said,’ Why don’t we do something special for our special friends out here?’ And man, did we do something special.”

With $750,000 in seed money through the Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation — which gave Senchak’s family naming rights — Gabba Camp was born.

“So it was a good way not only to give back to the community, give back for very special, special people, but for us as a family, it will be around a long, long time,” he said.