Melendez, an internationally known singer and guitar player, spoke at a senior high youth rally Saturday at Kennedy Catholic High School in Hermitage. The theme for the rally, sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Erie, was "A Time for Heroes."

Melendez, 40, was born in Nicaragua and came to the United States when he was just a year old. Because his mother took the drug Thalidomide while she was pregnant he was born without arms and a club foot.

Despite that, Melendez began playing the guitar at age 16, using his toes instead of his fingers. He has played at six Catholic World Days and for Pope John Paul II in 1987.

"The Lord never sends us anything we cannot handle," he said. "I just really believe that everything you have comes from the heavens."

He and his wife, Lynn, have been married for 12 years and have two children, Andreas, 5, and Marisa, 8.

While performing songs and sharing tidbits from his own life - some humorous, some serious - Melendez told the students how Marisa helped him feel like a hero.

She was only one year old, and had just waken up from a nap. She cried because she wanted to get out of the crib, but Melendez's wife was in the shower. So he walked up to the crib, and turned his back on her and knelt down. He said to her in Spanish, "Give me your little hand."

Marisa placed her hand between her father's chin and shoulder and climbed up on his back.

"She let me know I was her carrier," he said. "To be a hero, I always thought I needed arms. In my daughter's eyes, all I needed to be was a loving father."

Before performing the song, "I Wish I Could Hold You," Melendez said one thing he wished he could do was hold his wife in his arms.

"When I got married, I would have loved at the reception to be able to slow dance with my honey. When we were exchanging vows, I would have loved to have been able to take her hand and put the ring on her finger," he said.

Melendez's brother, Jose, also spoke about heroes, and his relationship with his brother when they were growing up.

"Heroes are ordinary people doing extraordinary things," Jose Melendez said.

The mood did not stay sentimental for the entire performance.

Melendez led the students in a rousing rendition of Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" and ended his set with "La Bamba."

Melendez said he grew up in a musical household. His mother sang, and his father played guitar.

He decided he wanted to play the guitar too. His father told him could - as long as he washed his feet first.

"I never had a lot of forming training, but I had a lot of musical influence," he said.

Since performing for the Pope, whom he lists as one of his personal heroes, Melendez has gotten requests to perform all over the world. In Branson, Mo., where he lives with his family, he has a show called "The Gift of Hope." He has also recorded several albums.

Melendez said he used to think that to be a hero you had to have a lot of muscles, money or bravery.

"But what I found out about being a hero, you just have to be you," he said. "If someone says you are a hero, you become a hero."