Donations made in memory of a Newnan native who died 25 years ago are now helping expand mental health counseling services at the Coweta Samaritan Clinic, thanks to a collaboration with Choosing Him Ministries.
The Budd family directed funds given in honor of their son, Andrew Bryant Budd, to the clinic, which is using the money to provide counseling for patients through a Choosing Him Ministries counselor.
Bryant’s brother, Wesley Budd, described him as “an all-American guy.”
“He was very attractive, very good at everything he did,” he said.
Bryant led the region in hitting while playing baseball at Newnan High School, his father, Warren Budd, said. Kelly Hines, the clinic’s executive director, said she remembered Bryant as joyful.
“He just radiated,” Hines said. “He was just cute as could be. We all had a crush on him.”
Bryant was 21 in 1999 when he left a fishing trip with his father and was never seen by his family again. Warren had noticed his son losing weight a few weeks earlier, but Bryant had brushed it off. When Bryant called from Emory upset, Warren picked him up, took him to lunch and then fishing.
“He loved to fish, so I took him fishing at a friend’s pond,” Warren said. “Right after we started fishing, he docked the boat and took off. I never saw him again.”
The family searched for more than two years until Bryant’s remains were found in 2001 about a mile from the pond.
Donations began coming in after the memorial service at Cornerstone Baptist Church, his mother, Courtenay Budd, said. Unsure how to use the funds at first, the family later directed them to the Samaritan Clinic, where the money remained until the right opportunity arose.
The clinic had relied on a volunteer counselor who left this summer. Knowing the move was coming, Hines said they had been concerned for the past year about losing in-house counseling services. The volunteer counselor had seen about 24 patients last year.
Meanwhile, Choosing Him Ministries, founded in 2017 and focused on women, became a nonprofit Bible counseling center in January 2024 to help address the growing need for faith-based counseling.
“We realized through our events that there was not a counseling opportunity at the churches to hand the ladies to as they were processing through their life,” said Tecia Janes, president of Choosing Him Ministries. “The backlog for mental health counselors was so long people were not able to get in.”
Representatives from Choosing Him began attending the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce’s nonprofit alliance events, where they met Hines. Conversations between Hines, Janes and Bridging the Gap director Jamar Joiner led to a plan to place a Choosing Him counselor at the clinic using the Budd donation to help fund the position.
Choosing Him operates on grants and donations and did not have the budget to start the new project on its own. Still, Janes felt they were meant to move forward.
Counselor Karen Hurley is now at the clinic every other week for four hours, doubling the availability previously offered by the volunteer counselor, Hines said.
The Budd family is grateful to see the funds helping others. Wesley Budd serves on the clinic’s board of directors, and his wife, Lauren, a dental hygienist, will volunteer at the clinic.
Warren Budd noted that suicide is the second leading cause of death for men ages 18 to 30, behind car accidents.
He and Courtenay are thankful their son’s story may help others receive support before it is too late.
“The clinic is saving lives every day,” Wesley Budd said. “Mental health has been such a silent killer for so long. It has touched so many people in our community and we have lost so many people.”
Lauren Budd added that she is proud the clinic can provide this care.
“Finances should never keep somebody from getting the emotional care that they need,” she said.