Paying It Forward

By Bernie Franco

Judy Ann gives back when and where it counts.

Judy Ann's other passion is charity work. She recently founded the Touch A Heart Foundation, where she fostered a group of Aetas in a Bataan community to provide educational, medical and agricultural assistance. She also has a housing project intended to help the so-called 'little people' in the industry.

Judy Ann just doesn't talk about it much. Like other celebrities who help out certain charities and charitable institutions, she feels uncomfortable talking about it. "It's payback time, and also, it's paying it forward," she says. "Kumbaga, kung ano 'yung maliliit na bagay na puwede kong maibigay, paunti-unti binibigay ko."

This desire to pay it forward is Judy Ann's way of thanking God for the opportunity to fulfill her dreams. Now that she's in a position to do so, she sees this as her turn to help fulfill the dreams of others.

Judy Ann has always had a soft spot for the little people in showbiz. Remember, this was the little girl who grew up finding father figure from among her directors, cameramen and utility men on the set of Kaming Mga Ulila, Ula, Ang Batang Gubat and Mara Clara. She had always felt a kinship, a special bond with them. Even when she started becoming a bigger star--and as the demands on her got heavier--she still kept the welfare of the 'little people' in mind. Even when the work got difficult, she learned not to complain because if she did, it would affect people who depend on her for their livelihood.

"Pinapahalagahan ko yung mga tao sa likod ng camera, mula sa utility, hanggang sa mga drivers. Hindi ako mareklamo, kasi kung may mga taong dapat magreklamo, sila 'yon. I rest whenever I want. Sila, they don't have any choice. What right do I have na magreklamo? Nakakahiya kay Lord kung magrereklamo ako. Na hindi ko i-consider yung fact na mas higit pa yung nararamdaman ko na comfort. Kaya kahit may sakit ako, nahihiya ako mag-pack up ng taping, dahil may mga tao na di susuweldo."

Taken from StarStudio Magazine: Judy Ann Santos Special Edition

Dalton's atomic theory

a milestone in the development of chemistry devised by the English chemist and physicist John Dalton (1766-1844). He put forward the theory that all matter is made up of particles (atoms), which are identical throughout one element or substance, and that chemical reaction occurs through the attraction between atoms.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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It was in the early 1800s that John Dalton, an observer of weather and discoverer of color blindness among other things, came up with his atomic theory. Let's set the stage for Dalton's work. Less than twenty years earlier, in the 1780's, Lavoisier ushered in a new chemical era by making careful quantitative measurements which allowed the compositions of compounds to be determined with accuracy. By 1799 enough data had been accumulated for Proust to establish the Law of Constant Composition ( also called the Law of Definite Proportions). In 1803 Dalton noted that oxygen and carbon combined to make two compounds. Of course, each had its own particular weight ratio of oxygen to carbon (1.33:1 and 2.66:1), but also, for the same amount of carbon, one had exactly twice as much oxygen as the other. This led him to propose the Law of Simple Multiple Proportions, which was later verified by the Swedish chemist Berzelius. In an attempt to explain how and why elements would combine with one another in fixed ratios and sometimes also in multiples of those ratios, Dalton formulated his atomic theory.

Taken from Clackamas Community College Website

TRIVIA

A palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. For example: Madam, I'm Adam. Another one: Step on no pets.

The Guinness Book of World Records says that this is the hardest tongue twister: "The sixth sick sheik's sheep's sick."

About 10 million people in the world have the same birthday as you.

The shortest war in history was between England and Zanzibar in 1896. It lasted only 38 minutes. England won.

There are only two words in the English language that contain all the vowels -- a, e, i, o, u -- in the proper order. They are facetious and abstemious.

A flea can jump 200 times the length of its own body.

On the day Mark Twain was born, Halley's Comet was in the sky. He died 75 years later, the next time Halley's Comet appeared over the earth.

Coca-Cola was invented in 1896. How to make it is still a secret that only two men know today. Even when these two men travel to the same place, they fly on different airplanes so that in case one of them should die in an accident, the other would still be alive with the secret.

A "phobia" is a fear, and some people have very strange ones. Here are just a few. Chromophobia is a fear of colors. Sitophobia is a fear of food. Verbophobia is a fear of words. Pedophobia is a fear of children and dolls. Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanit butter sticking to the root of the mouth.

To fill a teaspoon full of water would take 120 drops.

Every healthy person who lives for 70 years walks about 70,000 miles in a lifetime. That is about 18,000 steps in one day.

A housefly lives for only two weeks.

Condensed from Macmillan Illustrated Almanac for Kids