Only when she retrieved her messages did she hear, "Hi Misty, this is Barack Obama ... "

When she helped organize the Utah portion of "Walk For Change," she got a personalized thank-you letter in the mail from Obama, signed in real ink.

When she drove to Park City to see Obama in his one and only Utah appearance, he strode over to her group, posed for a photo, shook her hand and said hello.

You'll understand why Misty took the campaign, and the triumph, very personally.

Now it's all over but the basking in the limelight.

And continuing to stay involved.

"About a week after the election, the Utah For Obama group got together and all decided we need to keep going," said Misty. "We realized it would take away all the reasons we did what we did if we stopped now. The citizen involvement is what matters. A lot of grass-roots people, people just like me, we made this happen. This is our change."

And Barack — as in rock — is their man.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.