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.

She hopes Obama can help communities like hers, where workers have been displaced by a rapidly globalizing economy. "I know our jobs won't come back.

"Textiles are gone," Craven said. "But I hope they will be creating jobs."

•Howard Snowden, Chesapeake, Va.

Snowden's troubles have multiplied since he introduced Barack Obama on Aug. 21 at the Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, Va. At the time, Snowden was worried about how he could continue to cover the rising cost of food, fuel and medications — he has a chronic heart condition — on a retirement income of just under $45,000 a year.

This month, the 73-year-old canceled his plans to travel to Obama's inauguration so he and his wife could nurse their daughter, Gail, who suffered a heart attack two days before Christmas. "She's going to need constant care,' Snowden said.

The couple is taking in their daughter so her husband, a crane operator, can go to work. Snowden said his son-in-law has health insurance through his job.

Snowden said he hopes Obama will keep the Social Security program as it is. "If it goes private, I'll lose money," he said.

He said he's looking forward to the inauguration of Obama, who inspired Snowden to volunteer for his first presidential campaign. "I heard him speak at the 2004 Democratic convention and I told my wife, 'If he ever runs for president, I'm going to support him,' " Snowden said.

•Deirdre Younglove, Monroe, Mich.

At a Labor Day rally behind a plumbers and pipefitters' union hall in Monroe, Mich., Obama was introduced by Younglove, the mother of four daughters, ages 2 through 14, and the wife of a laid-off autoworker.

"Sen. Obama is a man who wants to give our children health insurance, to guarantee them a quality education, provide stable well-paying jobs and protect the earth we've been given. If that isn't values, I don't know what is," the 38-year-old housewife told the crowd.

Obama replied, "That's one of the best introductions I've ever had."

Younglove said that her husband, Aaron, has since found work at a nuclear power plant and is retraining in the hopes of earning a promotion. Meanwhile she and several other veterans of the Obama campaign are working to enlist children in the president-elect's call for community service.

Younglove's first effort came just before Christmas, when she convinced students at the local grade school to send more than 200 cards to patients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

This weekend, Younglove, her daughter and some friends are driving to Washington for the inauguration — and a reunion with some of the campaign field organizers who worked in Monroe.

"We're hoping to all stay together, continue with these Obama meetings they've been having across the nation and get these grass-roots going again," Younglove said.

•Ida Fast Wolf, Rapid City, S.D.

"This is so cool," Fast Wolf declared as she introduced Obama to a town hall meeting in Rapid City, S.D., in May. A member of the Oglala Sioux tribe who grew up in Chicago but returned to the Pine Ridge reservation where she was born to teach, Fast Wolf lamented how she was being forced to give up a job she loved because the nearly two-hour commute was costing her $175 a week in gasoline.

This academic year, Fast Wolf is carpooling with five other teachers to a school closer to her home. She said Obama's first priority must be reviving the economy. After that, she hopes he focuses on improving health care and education.

"I hope he doesn't get lost," said Fast Wolf, 52. "I told him I was going to come hunting him down and remind him of what he promised."

On Inauguration Day, she'll be watching from the classroom, along with the 20 fifth-graders she teaches.

"It would have really been nice if I had been able to go," she said. "But I think this is important, too."

•Bob Rupert, Pottstown, Pa.

Rupert said he was at home watching the Philadelphia Phillies in the baseball playoffs last October when he got a call from the Obama campaign asking if he'd like to introduce the senator the next day at Abington High School. He said he loved the opportunity to schmooze with Obama before the speech.

"I was really into it," he said. "We talked about sports, a little bit about myself. I asked if he got his jump shot going that day. Guy things."

Rupert, who described his borough as "an industrial community that has had a lot of setbacks," said he's been laid off three times from various middle management jobs.

"I kept earning a little less money each time; the benefits got a little worse," he said.

Still, he's happy to have found a job close to home with a company that refurbishes bakery equipment, and a weekend moonlighting gig as a bartender. "I'm lucky," said Rupert, 52. "I still have a job."

Though Obama's about to take the oath of office, Rupert said "I'm still working for the campaign."

He recently joined a group of Obama volunteers to discuss how "to get a grass-roots organization together to implement some of the things Barack Obama wants." They're also trying to come up with ways to help community food banks and the local library.

About 100 campaign veterans showed up for the meeting, eager to maintain their connections, Rupert said. "We thought we made a difference."

•Jane Lang, Salem, N.H.

Lang began downsizing before the economic downturn made it fashionable for everyone. Four years ago, she and her husband, who is retired and on disability, gave up their condo and moved to New Hampshire in search of a more economical lifestyle.

"We were house poor," she said.

Early last year, Lang gave up the job she had at Brandeis University, outside of Boston, because of the long commute. She wanted work closer to home but by the time she introduced Obama, at an Oct. 16 event in Londonderry, N.H., Lang was becoming anxious.

"I'm going to be 61 and trying to look for work at that age is really tough," she said.

The night before her talk, she had to take her husband to the emergency room. She told her audience she was worried about how they were going to pay. "I'm guessing the bill won't be pretty."

Now, Lang says she is feeling better.

"I just started a job today," she told USA TODAY in a phone interview. "I did have to take a large cut in salary, but we just have to simplify our lives right now."

Her other piece of good news: "In 90 days, I will have health benefits."

Asked about her hopes for the new president, Lang said, "I would like to see him create more jobs." But she also wants a more sweeping re-examination of the nation's economic priorities. "The bailout — this is like a joke," Lang said of the $700 billion government plan to shore up troubled financial businesses. "The banks are getting money, but where is it going?"

•Art Armstrong, Kansas City, Mo.

On the day Obama takes the oath of office, Armstrong will be settling into a lonely bachelor pad in Dallas, more than 550 miles south of the Kansas City home where he and his wife raised their two children. An airline mechanic, Armstrong had to accept a transfer in order to keep his job. "I'm going to be commuting," he said.

Armstrong, who introduced Obama Oct. 18 at a Kansas City rally, has one child in college and another preparing to go next year. He wants Obama to do something about interest rates on student loans. He doesn't think it's fair that his daughter is saddled with a 9% interest rate when he has co-signed her loan. "I've got a perfect credit score," he said.

He worries about the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, especially in the airline industry.

Armstrong said some companies are trying to offset skyrocketing fuel costs "by getting cheap labor." And he hopes Obama can do something about the fluctuations in the stock market and energy prices.

"It's hard for people like me to keep things stable for our families," said Armstrong, 53.

Armstrong said he may be too busy settling into his new workplace to watch the inauguration, but he's looking forward to it.

"I'm positive," he said.