Sun Life and the Boston Celtics close out the 9th annual #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes campaign with $155,000 donation to YMCA of Greater Boston

WELLESLEY, Mass. and BOSTON, Dec. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Life and the Boston Celtics are closing out another year of #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes with a $155,000 donation to the YMCA of Greater Boston's Healthy Habits program. Every November, which is Diabetes Awareness Month, Sun Life donates $1,000 for each Celtics dunk, matched by the Celtics Shamrock Foundation up to $25,000. Through weekly polls on Twitter, fans vote on their favorite dunk of the week, culminating with a final Twitter vote for 'Dunk of the Month.' Each Twitter vote generates a $1 donation, while 'Dunk of the Month' votes generate $5. This year, the honor went to Jayson Tatum from the November 2 game against Cleveland. 

Tatum led the team's whopping 60 dunks in November with 17 of his own, while Luke Kornet got 16. With 60 dunks and 6,898 Twitter votes throughout the month, #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes raised $105,000 for the Y. Sun Life is also providing an additional $50,000 development grant to support the Y's efforts to expand the Healthy Habits program to children. Healthy Habits teaches lifestyle and nutrition habits, helping participants avoid a type 2 diabetes diagnosis and live healthier lives.

"We are thrilled to continue supporting the YMCA of Greater Boston's Healthy Habits program, including providing additional resources to help the Y expand the program to children," said Neil Haynes, senior vice president and CFO of Sun Life U.S., and board member of the YMCA of Greater Boston. "The Y knows how important it is to teach these lifestyle habits young, and we're lucky to have a partner like the Boston Celtics, who inspire so many young fans around New England and set an example for health, fitness, and discipline."

At Friday night's game against the Heat, representatives from the Celtics organization, Sun Life, and the YMCA of Greater Boston met at center court during half-time to present the Y with the giant check.

"Through this campaign, we are able to showcase the value of creating habits to sustain a healthy lifestyle," said Ted Dalton, Boston Celtics chief partnership officer. "We love teaming up with Sun Life and the YMCA of Greater Boston each year to raise awareness and funding for an important cause."

The YMCA of Greater Boston's Healthy Habits program is a 10-week intensive course for adults at risk for or living with diabetes. The program provides participants with the tools and support they need to establish and maintain the foundational habits for living a healthy lifestyle. With Sun Life's support, the YMCA will be embarking on a development process with the goal of expanding the program to reach children. This builds on Sun Life's and the Celtics' youth fitness program with the YMCA of Greater Boston, called Fit to Win. This program engages third through sixth graders, challenging them with workouts and healthy lifestyle habits, and having them track their results over a 4-week period. The 9^th annual Fit to Win program will begin in early 2023.

"We are so fortunate to have wonderful partners like Sun Life and the Celtics, two organizations working to help improve health and wellness in the Greater Boston community," said David Shapiro, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Boston. "Continuing and broadening our Healthy Habits program ensures more people, especially children, have the opportunity to learn life skills that will help them stay healthy and active."

Since the beginning of #SunLifeDunk4Diabetes, Sun Life and the Celtics have raised more than $800,000 for the YMCA of Greater Boston's diabetes education programming. Globally, Sun Life has donated more than $34 million to support diabetes causes, and has given over $3.8 million in the U.S.

About Sun Life
Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing asset management, wealth, insurance and health solutions to individual and institutional Clients. Sun Life 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 September 30, 2022, Sun Life had total assets under management of C$1.27 trillion. 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 is one of the largest group benefits providers, serving more than 55,000 employers in small, medium and large workplaces across the country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of insurance products and services in the U.S. includes disability, absence management, life, dental, vision, voluntary and medical stop-loss. Sun Life and its affiliates in asset management businesses in the U.S. employ approximately 8,000 people. Group insurance policies are issued by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Wellesley Hills, Mass.), except in New York, where policies are issued by Sun Life and Health Insurance Company (U.S.) (Lansing, Mich.). For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com/us.  

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SOURCE Sun Life U.S.