The Gaston family led by singer, dancer, and actress Lydia Gaston won in the Family Feud game show and named Tapulanga Foundation in Silay City as their charity of choice.
Gaston, a longtime New Yorker who grew up in Negros Occidental, and her family played against the family of Filipino-American stand-up comic and actor Jo Koy in the July 31 edition of Family Feud hosted by Steve Harvey.
Gaston plays the role of “Tita Susan”, the mother of Jo Koy, in the all-Filipino main cast comedy film entitled “Easter Sunday” that opened in the United States on August 5. It will open in the Philippines on August 31.
Gaston and her family won $20,000 for Tapulanga Foundation Inc., a non-profit charitable organization that helps provide educational and healthcare assistance to farm communities in Silay City and neighboring areas, its executive director Micmic Abello-Golez told DIGICAST NEGROS on Sunday, August 7.
Tapulanga runs the St. Francis of Assisi School in Silay City.
“I am just so happy with this financial blessing because more kids will be given the opportunity to study in St. Francis of Assisi School and have a chance for a better life,” Abello-Golez said.
“We now have 680 scholars receiving free education from preschool to college,” she said.
“Tapulanga is a foundation that has provided access to education for economically disadvantaged children in my province of Negros Occidental, where I grew up,” Gaston said.
“They specifically focus on providing a solid basic education for children of farm laborers to give them better employment opportunities, enabling them to have a brighter future in the 21st century world”, she added.
She said for 50 years, her mother Lydia Madarang Gaston was an arts educator in Negros Occidental through her dance school.
“Instilling knowledge with self-worth was foremost in her tenets of teaching. I believe that the mission of Tapulanga reflects these very same values. My mom if she were alive today would be very happy to know that we are donating to this very important organization,” Gaston said in an email sent through Abello-Golez.
Gaston, who now lives in New York, is married to Karl Greenberg.
Her biography, on her website, states that her eclectic performing career began with Ballet Philippines where she became a soloist at sixteen.
Later in New York she danced with various dance companies, most prominently with choreographer/playwright Rachel Lampert.
She is a veteran of six Broadway shows, has appeared in The Sopranos (HBO), The Blacklist (NBC), The Path (HULU), and as a fictional 2020 presidential candidate on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Gaston is an arts educator with a Masters of Arts degree in Applied Theatre from CUNY School of Professional Studies.
She is an adjunct professor at SUNY Empire State College, and has shared her theatre and dance knowledge in various communities including seniors, and students from pre-elementary to high school, her biodata states.
She is writing and developing a solo piece Her Mother’s Daughter about her mother, her first dance teacher and mentor.*