Milledgeville, Ga. (September 26, 2025) – Piedmont Macon executives presented Jeff Youmans with a Community Hero Award for his efforts to bring hope to the less fortunate across Middle Georgia.
In 2024, the Christian-based Brighter Days Ministry, which Youmans founded, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Hardwick, an unincorporated community just south of Milledgeville. The ministry’s mission is simple: to “bring people together through service to promote dignity and hope by focusing on safe housing, clothing and basic needs.”
Linda Clarke, a Brighter Days board member, said she will never forget the time a home health nurse called the ministry about a woman who needed a refrigerator. When Youmans arrived, he found she had very little food and clothes. Her home had only a handful of items inside: a picnic cooler, an air fryer and an air mattress.
“When Jeff saw the situation, he told our group to bring everything, and we furnished her house for her,” Clarke said. “That’s the kind of person Jeff is.”
The road to Brighter Days wasn’t an easy one for Youmans. Several years ago he lost his son, Adam, and then in 2022, his wife, Tonya, passed away after an extended illness. After Tonya died, Youmans decided to quit his job to do mission work full time.
“I have never in my life met a person with a more caring heart,” Clarke said. “He will bend over backward to help someone in need, without judging them. Jeff has such a tender heart and is willing to help anyone.”
Haylee Hurley, a hospice nurse in Milledgeville who cared for Youmans’ wife, nominated Youmans for the Community Hero Award. His “passion for helping others” through Brighter Days is inspiring, she said, ticking off a list of recipients of Brighter Days’ generosity. She said the organization has cleaned up local parks, built wheelchair ramps, stocked the pantries of single mothers down on their luck, donated electric lift chairs to patients who can’t afford them and provided clothes for the needy.
“If you say Jeff Youmans’ name in our community, nine times out of 10, people will know who he is,” Hurley said. “For the people who need help and don’t have the resources, he is their person. He truly is a hero in our community.”
Stephen J. Daugherty, CEO of Piedmont Macon Medical Center and Piedmont Macon North Hospital, said Youmans is the definition of a hero.
“A true hero is defined not only by compassion, but by action,” Daugherty said. “Through his nonprofit, Jeff has turned caring about his neighbors into real impact. Jeff is a hero in the truest sense, changing lives and bringing hope to countless members of this community.”
The Piedmont Macon Community Hero Award is presented quarterly to a deserving individual. After soliciting nominations from the community and hospital employees, Piedmont Macon’s executive leadership team selects a winner. Along with the award, the recipient will receive $500 for the charity or nonprofit organization of his or her choice. Youmans is the eighth recipient of the award.