Nick Santonastasso has one arm equipped with one finger. He has no legs. He also has no limitations . " I know anything's possible ," the 12-year-old told TODAY 's Ann Curry. He can play baseball and football, play the keyboard and drums, and play video games with his brothers. When Nick was born, he suffered a disease only found in 11 other people. The Santonastassos had three other children, and they decided to treat Nick the same as others, with love but without excuse " We're supposed to be heroes to our children, but Nick is a hero to us," his father Michael said. But heroes have heroes, too, and Nick's is Tiki Barber, the former football superstar who retired last year and became a reporter for TODAY. Curry told Nick that for his birthday, the show wanted to give him a new skateboard. The person who presented it to him was Barber. " You're an inspiration," Barber said. " There are a lot of kids who might be at a disadvantage. You give them strength." Curry observed that most parents try to protect their kids from failure, but the Santonastassos didn't do that with Nick. "Absolutely not, "Nick's mother Stacey said. " If you do have a small failure, it just makes you stronger to succeed at the next stop." " It builds self-confidence in yourself to try it again," Nick added. Recently, Nick entered a drawing in a statewide contest in New Jersey. His drawing was a tree with a spreading canopy   and deep toots. Above the tree were the words, "The roots of a family are..." Below the ground, the roots spelled out the final word for the message: " Love." It won the contest. The judges didn't know Nick' physical condition. He won on merit  , the same way he does everything else in life. In the opinion of Barber, Nick  _  .
would learn a lot from his failure. would become a star in playing skateboard. set a good example to other disabled kids proved a real hero to other heroes