There are days when doing the right thing is easy.

Then there are the days when you do not feel like showing up.

When the work is hard. When nobody is watching. When it would be easier to stay home, take the shortcut or let somebody else handle it.

Those are the days Jon Matthews talks about.

“There are days where you don't want to do the thing that you need to do,” Matthews said. “And you get up and do it anyway.”

For more than a decade, Matthews lived that mentality as a police officer in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Today, he is teaching the next generation to live it too.

Through Run Well, the nonprofit organization he founded, Matthews brings Greensboro teenagers together with police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel for weekly workouts, shared meals and conversations centered around character, responsibility and what it means to become a good man.

For dedicating his life to those principles and his community, Matthews was recognized during PBR Teams’ Cowboy Days in Greensboro with the Horse Soldier Bourbon Be Cowboy Award.

The Be Cowboy Award recognizes everyday heroes who embody the values long associated with the cowboy way of life — courage, integrity, resilience and a willingness to put others before themselves.

You do not have to wear the hat, buckle or boots to be a cowboy.

Sometimes, you just have to be willing to show up for somebody else.

For Matthews, that calling began behind a badge.

During more than a decade in law enforcement, he served Greensboro through some of the job’s most demanding assignments, including tracking violent fugitives, working as a Secret Service Task Force Agent and responding to high-risk calls as part of the department’s Special Response Team.

Then, in 2019, he stepped away from policing to become a full-time youth minister.

The experience gave him an even closer look at the challenges facing young men and deepened his belief that mentorship, accountability and strong relationships could change the direction of a life.

When Matthews returned to law enforcement in late 2020, he brought that mission back with him.

Run Well grew from a simple idea: bring young men and first responders together consistently enough for real relationships to form.

The program has since developed into a yearlong mentorship experience designed to help teenagers build confidence, discipline and character.

Every week, Matthews and the Run Well mentors push participants physically while also making time for conversations about responsibility, maturity, family and leadership.

Over the course of the year, Matthews watches teenagers who once struggled to run a mile begin tackling challenges they may not have believed were possible.

One annual milestone is a Spartan race.

One recent group brought 50 young men and mentors together to complete 6.5 miles and roughly 30 obstacles.

Everybody finished.

But Matthews has seen some of the program’s most important moments happen away from the finish line.

During one event, an older participant fell into a creek.

One of the young men immediately ran over, grabbed him by the arm and helped him back to his feet.

“That’s the kind of folks that we’re trying to build here,” Matthews said. “Guys that see something that needs to be fixed and they run in and help fix it.”

Run Well participant Christian said the group has helped prepare him for the man he wants to become long after high school.

“They guide you along the way and kind of teach you those sort of lessons that young guys like myself will start to see as they grow older and mature,” he said.

As he prepared for college, Christian said few experiences had meant more to his development.

Another participant, Keon Saburon, described the program as especially important for teenagers nearing graduation who may feel lost or unsure of their next step.

“This club helps kids stay on the right track and gives them guidance,” he said.

That guidance comes from mentors who become more than workout partners.

They become examples.

One participant described facing challenges and asking himself what Matthews or one of the other mentors would do in the same situation.

Before one Run Well challenge, Matthews gathered the group.

“Is everybody ready?” he asked.

Everybody had worked for that day.

Then came another question.

“Are you going to leave anybody behind?”

“No.”

That answer says plenty about what Matthews is trying to build.

The young men push one another, the mentors hold them accountable and everyone learns that progress means more when nobody gets there alone.

That made the man presenting Matthews with the Be Cowboy Award especially fitting.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Robert “Bob” Pennington, U.S. Army, Retired, served more than 30 years in the Army, including 26 years as a Green Beret.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Pennington served as assistant detachment commander for Operational Detachment Alpha 595 during one of the most historic missions of the early war in Afghanistan.

Pennington and his fellow Special Forces soldiers partnered with Afghan forces and traveled into the country’s unforgiving terrain on horseback to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda forces vastly larger than their own.

Their mission became the basis for books and films including Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong and Legion of Brothers.

Pennington later became a Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment and was inducted into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame.

Today, he and fellow former Special Forces soldiers are among the veterans behind American Freedom Distillery and Horse Soldier Bourbon.

Pennington and Matthews arrived in Greensboro by very different roads, but both built their lives around service and responsibility to others.

One spent decades serving in the military.

The other served his community in law enforcement and ministry before creating a program aimed at helping young men find direction.

That shared sense of duty is at the heart of the Be Cowboy Award.

The cowboy code is not defined by what someone wears.

It shows up in the decisions they make when somebody is counting on them.

For Matthews, that means helping young men learn to keep going when something is difficult, take responsibility for the people around them and step in when someone needs help.

The results are already showing.

They are in the teenagers who finish races they once could not imagine completing.

They are in the young men who look to their mentors when deciding how to handle adversity.

And they are in the ones who see somebody fall and move toward them without being asked.

You do not have to wear the hat, the buckle or the boots to live by the cowboy code.

Sometimes being a cowboy means seeing what needs to be done — and stepping up to do it.

From all of us at PBR and Horse Soldier Bourbon, thank you, Jon Matthews, for reminding us what it truly means to Be Cowboy.

Stay tuned after each PBR Teams event of the 2026 season as we continue to spotlight the local heroes and changemakers who inspire us.