How Kennedy's Legislation Helped You Today

Aug. 27, 2009 — -- Have you ever been confined to a wheelchair? Ever had a job that paid minimum wage? Ever been or had a child who needed health insurance or one who needed a better standard of education?

The late Sen. Ted Kennedy was a driving force in authoring or vigorously supporting legislation that attempted to drastically improve all of those situations.

It was Kennedy's pen that wrote the legislation banning discrimination against those with disabilities in the workplace.

His hand helped raise minimum wage.

His words on the floor of the Senate pushed bills to expand health care to children and reached across party lines to help shape the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 for education.

Whether big or small, the impact of Kennedy's long and storied Senate career reverberates for millions of Americans every day.

But for some, Kennedy's dedication to the people took on a much more personal note.

Many years ago Kennedy helped Robert Potvin of Brookfield, Mass., get a job as a ranger on Cape Cod.

"Teddy Kennedy gave me a break when I was a kid," Potvin said.

When Christie Coombs lost her husband in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Kennedy was there to support her and wrote her every year on the anniversary.

"He had certainly lost enough family members in sudden, tragic ways and so I had no doubt that he was relating to what I was feeling," Coombs said.

Lauren Stanford was a kid when she met Kennedy as a representative of the Juvenile Research Diabetes foundation in the Kids Congress.