Ogletree to be honored at Chamber banquet for community service

BY VALERIE REDDELL
Editor
polknews@gmail.com

LIVINGSTON — The Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce will honor Tammi Sasser Ogletree as one of three recipients of its 2011 Community Service Award at the annual banquet set for Jan. 26 at Livingston Junior High. Ogletree’s passion for helping her community be a better place can be traced back to being raised in a home focused on serving others. Her parents, Lynn and Sandra Sasser, were ministers and missionaries who taught their children the importance of giving back to the community. “It’s not even a choice, this is what we are called to do,” Ogletree said. “If we don’t ‘do unto others’ what will our community and society be like?” She moved to Livingston in 1983 as a freshman at Livingston High School. She quickly became involved in many school activities including drill team captain, Miss LHS, co-homecoming queen, prom queen and class favorite. She enared a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baylor University in 1991. Despite working two jobs while attending Baylor she was named Business Education student of the year in 1991. She returned to Livingston in 1991 to work as business manager at Camp Cho-Yeh. She married Ben Ogletree III in June 1992 and began teaching sixth grade at Livingston ISD. In 1994 she began a stay-athome mome and started volunteering at church, school and in the community. Ogletree became involved with Relay For Life in 2004 when Cherie Pedigo Wheeland asked her to serve on the steering ommittee for the 2005 event. In May 2005, Ben was diagnosed with Chronic Leukemia. “Relay For Life then became a huge part of our lives. Not only did I take on a bigger role on the Relay committee, I asked my friends and family to form a team. I asked them about doing a T-shirt with just the word “Believe” on it to sell as a fund-raiser around Christmas time,” Ogletree said. “I envisioned our community being part of a movement that believed in a cure for cancer.” Tammi set a goal of selling 300 shirts. They sold 800 that fi rst Christmas. “It was an overwhelming feeling to see our community join together for one cause. “Believe” shirts have become a part of Polk County with special designs debuting for occasions throughout the year. There are now thousands of shirts out there and any visitor or resident will spot several Believers at any community event. “As long as Polk County ‘believes’ in a cure, I will continue to work tirelessly to come up with new designs and ideas for shirts. All the hours that go into designing, ordering, sorting and delivering pays off when a cancer patient or family members tells me how much it meant to receive a Believe shirt,” Ogletree said.