Obama campaign volunteers share their stories

— -- In the course of his presidential campaign, Barack Obama often highlighted his volunteers at rallies. At many events, he chose one of them — rather than a local politician — to introduce him.

USA TODAY contacted nine of the volunteers, including Randy Wehrman of Iowa, who introduced Obama to crowds from New Hampshire to Montana. All said they're hopeful about the future even though they're still struggling with the same problems they talked about when they introduced the future president: health care, tuition, and economic anxieties.

Here are their stories — and their to-do list for the incoming president:

•Steve Fugate, Billings, Mont.

Steve Fugate, 52, began his career doing seismographic work for petroleum exploration. But when the bottom fell out of the oil market, and Fugate found himself looking for work, he joined the Navy — following a family tradition. Fugate says his ancestors have fought in every major conflict since the Revolutionary War.

When he introduced Obama to a group of veterans in Billings, Mont., last August, Fugate said he recognized the "same sense of pride" when the presidential candidate talked about his grandfather's service in World War II.

"Barack Obama understands that we as a nation must keep our sacred trust with our veterans and our families," Fugate said.

Now retired after seven years of active duty and 18 in the Reserve, Fugate has embarked on a third career as a teacher, working with visually impaired students. He used the G.I. Bill to get his master's degree in education.

Fugate wants Obama to help improve health care access for Montana veterans. "A lot of them had to travel long distances," he said. He likes the president-elect's plans for promoting alternative energy, rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and hopes Obama will "take this country in a more progressive direction."

On Inauguration Day, he plans to take his daughter to school, do some work and "catch up with the highlights on the local news."

•Gloria Craven, Eden, N.C.

"I grew up in a town built on textiles," Craven told the Democratic National Convention where she reprised the story she told a few days earlier when she introduced Obama at an Aug. 19 rally in Raleigh, N.C. In 2003, the Pillowtex plant where Craven worked for 30 years closed. Along with 8,000 other mill workers, she and her husband, Jacob, lost their jobs and health insurance.

"You just keep saying a lot of prayers," said Craven, 56.

Craven said she tried to retrain as a respiratory therapist but found that three decades of standing on concrete floors in the mill left her unable to do the job. She recently qualified for Social Security disability, which made her eligible for Medicaid. "I'll still be doing my basic pinching pennies, but I won't have to do it quite as bad," she said.