On Thursday, March 22, in honor of Disability Awareness Month, Brett Eastburn presented in the Red Skelton Performing Arts Center. Eastburn was born in 1971 with a congenital birth defect know as quad-membral limbs deficiency. Eastburn has no arms and no legs and doesn’t consider himself to be “handicapped.” In school Brett played football, basketball, and baseball.

During his high school years he wrestled on the varsity team. In the 1988 wrestling competition under the AAU, Eastburn placed fourth in the nation. In the beginning of his presentation he asked the audience to remember their very first thought of him, mentioning that people were probably thinking “oh that poor guy probably can’t do anything.” During the presentation Eastburn showed the audience that he was fully capable of doing anything he put his mind to.

He informed the audience about the time he was on the basketball team and their opponents would let him flee with the ball, because they were scared of him. He said he was like his coaches’ “little weapon.” He provided several examples of how with no arms he threw balls to his teammates. He actually threw a basketball and a football into the audience, and said to the guys that caught them “I’d give you guys thumbs up, but I’d hurt myself.”

In spite of Eastburn’s disabilities, he is still full of joy and full of life. While presenting Eastburn was open to all questions. Someone from the audience asked when he realized he didn’t have arms or legs, and Brett responded and said, “a kid came up to me and said ‘you don’t have no parts.’”

Prior to ending the presentation, Eastburn mentioned that “when you say I can’t do that, you’re right ‘cause you’ll never try.”

Eastburn also expressed that he believes God made him the way he is, and that he was born that way and there is no medical reason why.

After the presentation a few people were asked to give their opinion about Eastburn’s presentation.

Victoria Mack, 25, Vincennes, health information management major, mentioned that “it was very inspirational, especially for people who have disabilities. It shows me that you can do anything you set your mind to.”

A woman from the Vincennes community, Beverly Hughes, mentioned that “it was very inspiring, it’s hard to believe that someone can do so many things with such a disadvantage. I like that he ended his message with God made him the way he did.”

Vincennes University student Amanda Darling said that she thought it was “positive, and I feel that for me, it would be very hard to do the things he does.”

Brett Eastburn has a business by the name of “No Boundaries Inc.” which has a lot of meaning behind it. Overall, his presentation was very motivating and inspirational to all. He has a book about his life available for purchase at www.bretteastburn.com.