Purple Cat and Golden String Founder Receives Pioneer Award
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Jimmy Sutman, founder of Purple Cat and Golden String, was honored Oct. 19 with the Pioneer Award by the Memories of a Lifetime program, which is a public service provided by the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society.
The award recognizes outstanding leadership, scholarship, community service and philanthropy.
Sutman’s organizations provide services for adults and youth with disabilities. Purple Cat was opened in 1998 in Youngstown to provide day-care alternative programs for adults in vocational training, life skills and creative arts. Sutman is also president of Iron and String Life Enhancement Inc. and director of operations for its nonprofit, Golden String Inc., which opened in 2003.
Sutman previously worked at the Leonard Kirtz School and WKBN. He pursued coursework at Youngstown State University and acquired the necessary licenses and credentials to provide services.
“Jimmy embodies the characteristics of a true pioneer, in his fearless, ground-breaking and original enterprises, all of which resulted in a cascade of much-needed services, for a population greatly underserved,” says Richard S. Scarsella, board chairman of the McGuffey Society.
William Holmes McGuffey was raised in Mahoning Valley, educated in Youngstown, and published his first of seven readers in 1836, which are still in print today. His family homestead on McGuffey Road in Coitsville Township is a national historic landmark. Now known as the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, the facility encompasses 72 acres and was donated by the WHMHS in 1998 to Mill Creek Metroparks.
The Youngstown McGuffey Society chapter is the last in the nation. A WHMHS owned McGuffey Family Archive is on loan to the Butler Institute of American Art. In Youngstown, a bridge, highway, school and community center are named after the educator.
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