Durham 5th-grader tries out for game show

Durham, N.C. — A Durham boy has won the chance to try out for the Fox game show “Are You Smarter than a 5th-Grader?”

David Wickward, 10, is one of 100 rising 5th graders from across the country to get the opportunity.

“I love the show. I’m really good at answering all these questions,” David said.

After he was born without arms, doctors gave David little chance to walk because of balance issues, but he has proved them wrong.

“I saw that this is just the way God made me,” David said.

David’s mother, Cathy Wickward, said her son has an “amazing attitude.”

“It’s kind of reinforced and made very real to him that he can do anything he wants to do, whether he’s got arms or not,” Cathy Wickward said.

On his audition tape, David told producers he wanted to send a message by being on the show.

“That’s why I think you should put me in your show, because I haven’t seen any kids with disabilities and you so need one,” he said on the video.

His parents see David’s selection as an amazing milestone.

David and his father, Bill Wickward, left for Los Angeles on Friday.

David, a student at Bethesda Elementary in Durham, was last featured on WRAL five years ago when Duke biomedical engineering students made him a special tricycle.