Take a Stand Standouts: Donna Mangold

A real life ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ Donna Mangold spent her career on the bustling factory floors of manufacturing plants throughout the country. Over the course of decades in the workforce, Donna’s efforts contributed to the fabrication of everything from industrial printers and paint sprayers, to dialysis machines and surgical heart-lung pumps; the sort of equipment that some may take for granted - while subconsciously counting on to make everyday life possible. 

Much like her current stint in campaign life with AARP’s Take A Stand Campaign , factory work wasn’t something that Donna had originally imagined herself doing.

“When I first started, it had more to do with the availability of those sorts of jobs.”

Recalling the Golden Age of America’s manufacturing sector, Donna told story after story of being able to land a new job within a day or two of first applying, or leaving one factory and walking across the street to get a job at another one. “Jobs were easy to get back then,” she quipped – a concept that today’s Millennials may find exceedingly hard to grasp.

As years went by and factory jobs moved overseas, the work that remained stateside grew tougher. While she was handily able to weather the increased quotas and pressures, the US economy had other plans for Donna; with the 2008 recession handing her a layoff notice and sending her into a somewhat unexpected retirement.

Donna does draw a small pension from one of her past employers, but she also receives a majority of her income from Social Security - a fact that she has no qualms about discussing.

“A foreign reporter came up to me at a debate and referred to Social Security as a ‘welfare program,’ she stated. Recalling her conversation with him, Donna pointed out the program’s historic role as an investment. “When it first started, the current workers were paying for the few retired workers,” going on to explain how the increased number of retirees paired with longer life spans have turned the program’s original math on its head.  

While not overly political, her rich set of life experiences have given her strong viewpoints on the subject of Social Security.

Having lived through the wage and price freezes of the 1970’s, she worries that a failure to adjust the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) will leave many seniors vulnerable to the painful effects of inflation. At the same time, her decades spent manning assembly lines make her question the virtue of increasing the retirement age , “At some point you’re not 30 anymore,” she said through a wistful chuckle. “Standing in one spot for eight hours just isn’t viable for a lot of people.”

In 2015, Donna decided that volunteering with AARP’s Take A Stand campaign seemed like an especially worthwhile use of her time.

“Getting involved felt easy enough,” remarked Donna. “And it seemed like a way to do some good.” 

More than anything else, she’d like all of the candidates to publicly declare their promise to protect future retirees from seeing a 25% reduction in benefits .

“When this campaign is all said and done, I want to be able to say that the president, senators, and congressmen have taken a stand to fulfill the promise that was made to all seniors.”

Now a proud grandmother, Donna enjoys flying out to El Paso to see her daughter, grandchildren, and son-in-law. She would certainly love to spend more time with her Texas loved ones, but she noted how happy she was to be able to frequently babysit a grandniece and grandnephew who live right here in New Hampshire.

“It’s nice to be a part of their lives,” she said with a smile. “It makes me feel useful, just like volunteering with AARP does.”

And useful she is.

On the day that she sat down to be interviewed, she had come into the office with a pile of notes and a handwritten letter to the editor that she’d been drafting on behalf of AARP. After a rigorous primary cycle spent making calls to potential volunteers, stuffing envelopes, and attending candidate events, Donna would be well within her right to leave the letter to someone else. But (as usual) the task was something that she was all too happy to jump into.

For Donna, volunteering with AARP is a great way to get out of the house and make a real difference for people. In fact, she even credits AARP with granting her the courage to pursue part-time work, including a seasonal retail position that she held during the holidays.    

“The days can be long when you’re not working anymore and such an important part of your family lives so far away, but this campaign keeps me busy and lets me talk to some vibrant, dedicated, and valuable people.”