BOSTON and PORTLAND, Maine and HARTFORD, Conn., March
27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Celtics drive toward
the completion of an exciting regular season, the team is also
proud to announce the successful conclusion of the third annual Sun
Life Fit to Win program. This year the program expanded to a third
New England city—Hartford, CT—in addition to Portland, ME, and Boston, MA.
Fit to Win is a four-week community-based program that helps
children embrace fitness exercises and healthy lifestyle habits.
Each week, with the help of a motivational and instructional video
from Celtics mascot Lucky the Leprechaun, the children learned new
exercises and health-conscious habits to follow. Throughout each
week the children tracked their activities and were rewarded with
Celtics-themed prizes. On Saturday, the top ten performers from
each city were invited to the Celtics practice facility in
Waltham, MA, where they showed off
their fitness and court skills to Marcus
Smart, Kelly Olynyk, and
Amir Johnson, and listened to the
players talk about their favorite ways to eat smart and stay
fit.
"It's important to learn healthy habits not only involving
levels of exercise and activity but also regarding the healthy
habits of everyday life," Johnson said. "This program helps show
kids that getting healthy can be fun."
The most popular fitness sequences included High
Flyer, which featured various types of squats, and Beast
Mode, which combined sets of sit-ups, push-ups, and burpees.
The most popular healthy habits were eating fruits and vegetables
and drinking water. Numbers were a bit lower when it came to
limiting screen time. See the attached infograph for program
results.
Sun Life and the Celtics continue their joint efforts in
promoting wellness and diabetes prevention to the Greater Boston community. In November 2016, the third annual
#SunLifeDunk4Diabetes campaign raised $75,000 for the YMCA of Greater Boston's Diabetes Prevention
Program.
"The Celtics and the YMCAs from across the New England area have
been phenomenal partners in helping to expand Fit to Win to bring
the program to more children," said Dan
Fishbein, President, Sun Life Financial U.S. "We are
addressing diabetes more aggressively than ever before. Supporting
organizations like the YMCA and their programs that teach health
and fitness—especially to children—is an important step in
combatting the disease. Sun Life invests in diabetes prevention as
part of our commitment to building healthier, more sustainable
communities."
Sun Life also offers the Team Up Against Diabetes grant program,
which supports community organizations around the country that
focus on diabetes prevention, diabetes management, obesity
prevention, and overall health and wellness. Grant recipients for
the 2016 grant program include YMCA of Greater Hartford's Diabetes Prevention
Program, Dogs4Diabetics, Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, the Diabetes Health and Wellness
Institute, and the Legacy Weight and Diabetes Institute. Grants are
awarded in amounts up to $50,000.
Applications for the 2017 Team Up Against Diabetes grant program
are now available and will be accepted through March 31, 2017. To learn more about the grant
program, please visit www.sunlife.com/usgrants.
For more information about the Celtics partnership with Sun Life
Financial and about their community involvement, go to
www.celtics.com/SunLifeFitToWin and www.sunlife.com/usdiabetes.
Next season, stay tuned for November's #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes and
Fit to Win 2018.
About the Boston Celtics
A charter member of the
Basketball Association of America (which evolved into the National
Basketball Association) since 1946, the Boston Celtics have won a
record 17 NBA Championships, including eight (8) in a row from
1959–1966, winning their first title in 1957 and their most recent
in 2008. The Celtics have long stood for equality, and respect,
including hiring the first African American Coach and starting the
first all-black starting five. In addition, 35 former Celtics
players, management or staff have been inducted into the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In December 2002 the team returned to local
ownership for the first time since 1963. For more information on
the Celtics, log on to www.celtics.com.
About Sun Life Financial
Sun Life Financial is a
leading international financial services organization providing a
diverse range of insurance, wealth, and asset management solutions
to individuals and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has
operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Japan,
Indonesia, India, China,
Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Bermuda. As of December
31, 2016, Sun Life Financial had total assets under
management of $903 billion. For more
information, please visit www.sunlife.com.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New
York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the
ticker symbol SLF.
In the United States, Sun Life
Financial is one of the largest group benefits providers serving
more than 60,000 employers in small, medium, and large workplaces
across the country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of products and
services in the U.S. includes Disability and Absence Management,
Life, Dental and Vision, Voluntary and Worksite, and Stop-Loss
insurance. This includes the acquisition of Assurant Employee
Benefits in Q1 2016. For more information, please visit
www.sunlife.com/us.
Contacts:
|
Heather Walker,
Boston Celtics, 617-854-8072, hwalker@celtics.com
|
|
Devon Fernald, Sun
Life Financial, 781-263-7151,
devon.portney.fernald@sunlife.com
|
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SOURCE Sun Life Financial