My name is Cameron Sanford. I am from Crockett County in the Western Region of Tennessee. I am 17 and am currently a senior at Crockett County High School. I have an older sister and a beautiful little niece. I have lived in Tennessee most of my life. One of my biggest passions other than 4-H is photography! I am a very outgoing person, and not afraid to express my opinion. 

I have been involved with 4-H like most youth since the 4th grade. It was not till the 6th grade that I knew my heart was 100% green! The opportunity came up for someone to be the June Dairy Month Chairman for my county. That is how I made my mark in 4-H! After being the Chairman I wanted to do more. Eager to be a leader I ran that upcoming August for The Photographer position in Honor Club. It was an awesome experience! After two years of being the photographer I knew I wanted to do more. In those two years, I met many amazing people that have helped me every step of the way! My 4-H agent and another very successful 4-H member that became to be my mentor. My third year in 4-H I ran for Vice President and got it! I was super excited and nervous at the same time. Now I serve as the President of our Honor Club, Deputy Chief (Vice President) in the Western Region All Stars, and former Deputy Chief for the Tennessee 4-H All Stars. I have been super blessed with all the amazing opportunities I have had in 4-H! 

Also, during the past almost 5 years I have been dedicated to Healthier Living! Starting 4-H I was about 5”10 and almost 200 pounds! I knew I was on an unhealthy path and wanted to change! Now, I am 6”2 and 140 pounds! I can honestly say I do not know where I would be without 4-H in my life!

Currently, I serve as one of the National Healthy Living Youth Ambassadors for National 4-H Council. I specialize in Bullying Prevention, Physical Fitness, and Nutrition. Allie Lansman from Iowa is our amazing nutrition expert that has taught me so much! It has been a little over a year since I took this blind step into a new leadership position. The Healthy Living Ambassador position will be open to anyone in 4-H that has a passion for Healthy Living. It is hard to put into words how AWESOME this position is! Just to help, I am currently on a Delta flight and on my way to Los Angeles, California for a Red Carpet event. The National 4-H Council is a partner with the Great American NO BULL Challenge. The present a video contest each year for youth that are passionate about stoping bullying. I have worked with the organization for the past few years. Crockett County 4-H group (my local 4-H club) submitted two videos and both were selected to be presented at the awards. 

That is just one of the amazing opportunities that we have had. I could talk about when the ambassadors went to California to work with the Biggest Loser on the Riding It Forward Campaign, or when we were the leaders at the National Healthy Living Summit in D.C.  I can honestly say as a 17 year old from small town Tennessee that I have been fortunate enough to work with a beyond amazing youth development organization called 4-H! Devoted to service to help their community, their country, and their world! 

I encourage ANYONE that has thought about applying for the ambassador position to please be on the lookout for the application and apply! When I applied I though to myself “they will never pick someone like me because I don't have a lot of leadership experience, they will never pick someone from the rural south, etc.” But, they did and we have GREAT ambassadors all over. A very good friend of mine Oakley G. Perry is from the great state of Georgia. Laura Meany is from Minnesota, Tristian Chester is from California, Allie Lansman is from Iowa, and Ru Ekanayake is from California as well. We are a very diverse group of young adults that bring so much to the table! 

If you guys ever need anything or want additional information about the Ambassador position, healthy living information, or anything about 4-H please do not hesitate to contact me! My contact information will be at the bottom. 

I want to thank any and all 4-H Members in the United States for their dedicated work to this amazing organization! I also want to say a big THANK YOU to the local Extension workers and state 4-H Staff for their unending support and dedication to helping the members to be the best that they can be! Lastly, I want to thank the staff at the National 4-H Council and National 4-H Headquarters for all of their work as well! If it wasn't for Mrs. Joanne Leatherman the ambassadors would have not been as successful as we have been.  

Thank you! 

-Cameron Sanford 

National Healthy Living Youth Ambassador 

Email: ccsanford2016@gmail.com 

This was in 2010 at one of my first 4-H Meetings. 

I'm the one in the orange shirt.

This was yesterday (5/7/15) at the NO BULL Challenge 

This was from the Riding It Forward Campaign at the Biggest Loser Ranch. 

My Weight Loss Journey

Hello Everyone! My name is Allie Lansman, I am currently a senior studying dietetics at Iowa State University, and I am the National Healthy Living Ambassador representing Iowa. 

Today, I wanted to take some time to introduce myself to you and talk about my experience with 4-H and Health Living and why these are the two most important aspects of my life. 

2015 has marked my 13^th consecutive year being involved in 4-H. It is amazing that it has been so long since I was a wide-eyed, shy, and excited 4th grader, eager to become the 4^th generation of my family to join 4-H, unknowing of the future opportunities that the program held in store for me. 

I jumped full force into 4-H, taking advantage of the experiences, opportunities, and skills that 4-H offered, which are all still important aspects of my life that I use today. But through these amazing moments in my life, 4-H became something that is so much more to me than a club or program. It is a true love, finally somewhere I could fit in and be myself. The most important thing it ever gave me was the confidence to believe in myself. This may not seem like much, but to me it was everything. It has helped me with many difficult situations that I have struggled through in my life, one of the most defining trials was my life long fight with obesity.

Being obese was something I lived with the majority of my life. Starting from a very young age, being overweight has already enveloped my life. When I was young, I did not realize what was wrong with me, I just knew I looked different than all of the other children, particularly girls, my age. Once I became older, I realized what was different about me and that it was developing into a serious problem, topping out at 135lbs in 6th grade. Teachers and even doctors begged me to lose weight, but no matter what, I could not get myself to change. I struggled to get through daily life, walking up the stairs was hard and I never participated in sports or PE because I was extremely embarrassed and I knew that I would get viciously made fun of as I had been many times before. I struggled a lot with self-image, being constantly paranoid about what I looked like and what others were thinking about the way I looked. I was constantly focused on this fact, while many of my classmates and friends were focused on looking pretty and wearing make-up I was focused on making sure no one paid attention to the way I looked and the fact that I was very fat. I remember during my 5th and 6th grades I alternated wearing 2 different baggy sweatshirts all year round so that maybe no one would look at me a notice my shape. I also took it upon myself to never look in a mirror, because every time I did all I would think how ugly and chunky I was on the outside, never giving consideration to the sweet and beautiful person I was on the inside. This constant negative self-talk took a toll on my emotional health and lead me to be an introverted, pessimistic person. 

I also struggled with bullying because of my weight while in school. The boys and girls were both mean, constant jokes and name calling. I knew never to get to close or communicate with the "jock" type boys or "popular" & "pretty" girls in my class, I knew they did not think I was pretty, but I never wanted to be told that to my face. All of this causing many emotional breakdowns and crying sessions as I drove home when class was over. 

            

Yet, even though I was miserable on the inside, I kept up the appearance of denial I with a happy smile on the outside to make sure that no one could see my pain and shame that I felt of myself.I was actually very good at pretending to be happy as a very involved student (I was in almost every activity you would think of, NOT SPORTS!!!), with decent grades and great best friends.

FINALLY!!!!!

One day I was walking in my PE class behind a couple of girls (not my favorite people in the world), when I looked up and noticed one of the girls was walking with her thighs clenched together and her feet out, making fun of the way my thighs rubbed together when I walked, then they would both turn back and laugh right at my face. 

When I left school, I was not sad, I was furious. I was so angry and I did not believe that anyone had the right to laugh straight in my face. I began to realize that this is what everyone expected of me for the rest of my life, a fat girl faking happy. Well, I was going to show them, all of them!

I had finally hit that point: I was fed up with what I had done to myself, I was sick of being unhappy and depressed, and I wanted to start being myself and letting the real Allie shine!

I was 5'3" and 171lbs. It was time to make a change.

I had a honest talk with my mother (AKA: my rock & my best friend), who has also struggled with obesity her whole life, and told her how I was feeling and that I needed to change my life. She agreed with me and we made a pact to do this together as a team, constantly providing each other support and keeping each other working toward our goals. 

Because I spent the majority of my life obese, I had to lose the weight by completely changing my entire lifestyle. NO FAD DIETS!!! I began with the food I was consuming, by implementing portion control, switching to wholesome and more nutritious foods, and learning the nutrition that I required on a daily basis. I then added exercise and I can truthfully say that I am at least 99.99% more active than I was three years ago, because I never exercised before. 

I will and cannot lie to any of you,  this was the most hard and difficult challenge I have ever been in. I literally had to change my entire life. I decided to do this the hard way too, without magic pills or mail-order programs, because I am a person that believes appreciation comes from hard work, and trust me I am appreciative of every single second and drop of sweat that I put into this goal.

Eventually, after a ton of hard work and a few struggles and setbacks along the way, I was able to complete my journey successfully lose 50lbs  in one year (my mom lost 50lbs, too!).  

And I did show everyone that had ever doubted me or expected me to be fat/get fatter for the rest of my life, but through my process of losing weight, the journey turned into so much more. Yes it does feel good when I walk into a room and people see me and their jaws drop or when someone who had previously made fun of me in high school has to tell me that I look amazing, but honestly, other than the confidence boost, none of that matters to me anymore. This is about me and how I feel, this is about what I think of me and not what others think, this is about me saving my life.

On this journey, I became a whole new me, and I really enjoyed this leaner, healthier, but most importantly, happy Allie.