Garfield first-grader to appear on 'Ellen'

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published December 04, 2008

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Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is scheduled to see if she can outsmart a Garfield Elementary School first-grader on her daytime show Thursday. – Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is scheduled to see if she can outsmart a Garfield Elementary School first-grader on her daytime show Thursday.

A number of young people from Thurston County have had moments in the national spotlight:

• Adam Lee of Lacey popped up on Martha Stewart's daytime show in December 2005, the year he graduated from River Ridge High School, to demonstrate his balloon art skills. He is skilled at making balloon likenesses of celebrities and now takes bookings for corporate parties.

• In 2007, Ian Culhane of Olympia, then a fifth-grader at Pioneer Elementary School, won the grand prize of a $10,000 savings bond and a trip to New York in a national contest for creating a toy roller coaster from 6,500 K'NEX pieces, which are toy rods and connectors. Ian, then 10, called his 7-foot tall roller coaster "Belly of the Beast."

• North Thurston High School junior Hayley Harris, 16, is an extra in the movie "Twilight," based on the popular books of the same name. Harris answered a casting call in Portland for extras on author Stephenie Meyer's Web site. The movie, filmed in Oregon, still is in theaters. Harris is in a cafeteria scene and some other shots around the school wearing her regular school clothes — cargo pants, a green and orange shirt and a brown jacket.

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Brandt Bickford, 6, is scheduled to be on the nationally televised show "Ellen," which airs at 11 a.m. on KING-TV, Channel 5.

School administrators say they heard that Brandt caught the television show producers' attention after they saw him display his knowledge of solar system facts on the video-sharing Web site YouTube, district spokesman Peter Rex said.

A blurb about Thursday's schedule on the "Ellen" show's Web site says: "An expert in the Solar System at age 6? It's true! When it comes to the universe, this kid is smarter than you, me … and every single one of those brainy 5th-graders! I'm going to put his knowledge to a true test!"

Brandt and his family were in New York to tape the show on Wednesday, according to his teacher, Theresa Creamer.

Creamer said that she and her first-graders plan to watch the Brandt's segment today.

"He's very inquisitive, and likes to give facts and details," she said. "And he just devours books."

She said it didn't surprise her that he would agree to go on television.

"He's quite a character," she said.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.