BOSTON and WELLESLEY, Mass., July
13, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In the absence of most summer
camp and daycare options, Boston Children's Museum and Sun Life
have partnered to develop a virtual play and learning experience
for Sun Life U.S. employees and their children, including those
located in Ireland and
Canada. The program, called
Explore It, starts this week and uses online programming to get
kids offline with creative, fun and educational activities to do at
home.
Recognizing the need for safe, summer programming options for
communities with less access to these opportunities, Sun Life and
the Museum are also donating the program to several Boston area organizations: the YMCA of Greater
Boston Roxbury Branch, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Hyde
Square Task Force, South Boston
Neighborhood House and P.A. Shaw Elementary School in Dorchester.
"We're excited to be able to work with Sun Life to support
children and families this summer, and to extend the program to
other families in need," said Melissa
Higgins, senior director of STEAM at Boston Children's
Museum. "It's great to be able to bring the spirit of Boston
Children's Museum to families in their homes. We know it was a
stressful spring and our hope is to be able to offer activities
that are joyful and help kids discover something new."
"We understand that keeping young children occupied at home has
been challenging for our employees during the pandemic, so we want
to help by providing something that will entertain and engage kids
and the whole family," said Dan
Fishbein, president of Sun Life U.S. "We also know there are
many more families in need of home-based summer activities for
their children. We are thrilled to work with an organization like
Boston Children's Museum, a fantastic resource for content that
educates and engages children, to offer our employees' families and
many others access to this program."
In March, Sun Life pivoted overnight to having nearly all
employees work from home. The company plans to continue the
work-from-home approach in support of other companies who need to
reopen to stay in business and access necessary personal protective
equipment and other services to reopen safely. Sun Life has
encouraged all employees to embrace more flexibility while managing
the unique work/life balance created by the pandemic. Then as
summer approached, the company realized that employees with young
children would be especially stressed with the absence of many
summer camps and daycare.
"Throughout this difficult time our employees have continued to
serve our clients in amazing fashion despite the added stressors of
no school or daycare," said David
Healy, senior vice president of Group Benefits Sun Life
U.S., and a member of Boston Children's Museum board of directors.
"Employee mental health and wellbeing is just as important to us as
physical health, and we hope that our employees and their kids will
be able to enjoy summer at home more with these activities."
Explore It has learning modules for children ages approximately
four to ten and focuses on six themes: In the Wild, In Your
Imagination, In Outer Space, In Construction, In the Water, and In
the Human Body. Each week children can access the new modules at
any time that is convenient for them throughout the summer and even
later if kids want to do the activities again.
Children will have the opportunity to do hands-on activities and
to stretch their creativity through multiple forms of expression.
Kids will make stuff, practice observing and asking questions, and
use both materials from around the house and materials they have
never seen before. They will make things they are proud of and
surprised by, do things that are truly silly, and discover new
things.
The Museum will draw on many tried-and-true resources they have
already created and will also develop new resources especially for
the virtual summer experience. These new resources will be
important for both caregivers and children, making for a cohesive
and memorable experience.
About Boston Children's Museum
Boston Children's Museum engages children and families in joyful
discovery experiences that instill an appreciation of our world,
develop foundational skills, and spark a lifelong love of learning.
More information about Boston Children's Museum can be found
at http://www.BostonChildrensMuseum.org. Become a
fan of the Museum
on Facebook and follow us
on Twitter
About Sun Life
Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization
providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to
individual and corporate 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 March
31, 2020, Sun Life had total assets under management of
C$1,023 billion. For more
information, please
visit http://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
60,000 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 5,500 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 http://www.sunlife.com/us.
SOURCE Boston Children's Museum