Delegates, Too, Have Traveled a Long Road to Reach Denver

Yee also mentioned to the group that he was a West Point graduate and former chaplain at the military prison who had complained about conditions on the island and had been investigated by the Bush administration. He was later cleared on charges that included mishandling classified information and lying to investigators.

"I received a tremendous amount of support from the other delegates," said Yee, 40, who won a spot in the state delegation.

Yee, who is Muslim, decided early in the primary race to support Obama because he heard the candidate's stump speech, which included a line about closing Guantanamo.

Then he watched right-wing pundits mock Obama's middle name, Hussein, and claim that the candidate -- who is a Christian -- is Muslim.

"It shows the tremendous amount of Islamo-phobia that exists in our country today, and it shows a tremendous amount of ignorance," Yee said. "We are trying to educate people about who we are as a community, about the Islamic faith."

Yee will speak on a panel sponsored by the American Muslim Taskforce in Denver and attend gatherings of veterans and a gala sponsored by a group of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

"I want to be an example for more Asian Americans and Muslim Americans to get involved," he said.

Paula Villescaz, Sacramento

When it is time to call out the name of the candidate whom she is voting for on the first roll call at the Democratic National Convention, delegate Paula Villescaz will shout "Senator Hillary Clinton!"

Clinton was the candidate for whom 19-year-old Villescaz waved signs in below-zero weather on a snowy New Hampshire corner. It was for Clinton that Villescaz organized other young people to get out the vote in Texas, all while e-mailing her statistics homework to her professors at the University of California at Berkley, where she will begin her sophomore year this fall.

"I had never been so happy and completely exhausted at the same time," Villescaz said, recalling Clinton's wins in those two crucial states.

"As a young woman who has never seen a lot of strong women, I felt like she would represent me best," said Villescaz, who is the first in her family to attend college and is majoring in political science. "I still really believe in everything she was preaching and saying."

She even persuaded her mom, who once worked as a seamstress and raised Villescaz alone, to vote for the first time in the California primary.

"My family is apolitical," Villescaz said. "The only thing you hear them say about the government is, 'Why are they taking so much money out of my check?' "

It will feel good to cast her vote for Clinton in the first round, she said, but in the second round she will vote for Obama.

"I fully support him," Villescaz said. "I think there are some [Clinton supporters] who will not go quietly, but I will not be a part of that crowd. We need to come out as unified as possible. I hope they won't be too loud. We just have too much at stake."