Press Release
For Immediate Release March 22, 2021
Sport Newfoundland and Labrador Launches “Healthy Me. Better Me” Campaign
St. John’s, NL – Sport Newfoundland and Labrador has launched a campaign to promote healthy active living in our province. The “Healthy Me. Better Me” initiative is a social media campaign that focuses on delivering healthy active living messages focused around physical activity, healthy eating, and vape-free living, which will be designed to motivate and inspire youth to take action for their own health. The target audience for the “Healthy Me. Better Me” campaign is all youth in Newfoundland and Labrador between the ages of 13 and 18.
To help spread the messages of this campaign SportNL is pleased to have three high profile athletes to help deliver personal messages around the targeted healthy active living focus.
Carl English – Former Professional Basketball Player
Katarina Roxon – Paralympic Swimmer
Liam Hickey – Multisport Paralympic Athlete
The campaign will run until July and will deliver a number of key messages through SportNL’s social media channels. Information is also available at www.sportnl.ca including contest details for some great prizes.
“We are extremely happy to have the support of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on this initiative, to promote a healthy lifestyle as well as highlighting recognizable Newfoundland and Labrador athletes that promote healthy active living in their daily lives.” Said Chris Schwartz, President Sport Newfoundland and Labrador.
Sport Newfoundland and Labrador is the volunteer organization committed to the promotion and advancement of amateur sport throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Sport Newfoundland and Labrador represents 55 provincial sport organizations and more than 70,000 individual members, offering a broad range of programs and services.
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For more information contact:
Troy Croft
Executive Director, Sport Newfoundland and Labrador
709-576-4932
Backgrounder Biographies
Carl English
Born in St. John’s, Carl English was a member of the provincial youth team and shone with his local school Fatima Academy, before moving to St. Thomas Aquinas. He spent four seasons at the NCAA Division I level with Hawaii. He earned All-WAC accolades in his final two years of college and left with the second-most career three-pointers in school history. Carl has been a mainstay on the national team since 2004. He played his final season 2015 – 2016. He was team captain for multiple years and led the team in scoring multiple summers. English began his professional career in the NBA D-League. In 2005, he signed with Italian team Virtus Bologna. English subsequently joined Zadar in Croatia, where he was one of the best scorers. In 2007, he moved to Spain for several years, leading the top Spanish league in scoring with Estudiantes in 2013. He returned to his hometown in 2017 with NBL Canada team St. John’s Edge and was named Most Valuable Player and Canadian of the Year in his first season.
Liam Hickey
Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador on March 25, 1998 (age 22).Liam was born with a congenital condition known as Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency (PFFD) i.e. missing the femur in his right leg. One of only a few dual sport Paralympians in the country, Liam has competed for Canada’s National Team in two Paralympic Games, including Rio 2016 in wheelchair basketball and then in Para Ice Hockey at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Liam has been involved with the Para Hockey National Team program for the last 6 years. His home club here in Newfoundland and Labrador is the Avalon Sled Dogs who play out of the Paradise Double Ice Complex.
Katarina Roxon
27-Year-old Katarina is a recipient of Order of Newfoundland & Labrador, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal & 2016 Paralympic Gold Medalist. She lives & trains in Kippens-Stephenville, successfully representing Canada in all major world swimming championships & Games for 15 yrs. Katarina has continued to break several national records every year since the year 2005 along with multiple World Records in the 200m Butterfly and the 1500m Freestyle since she was 12 years old. She returned from Rio in 2016 as only one of 3 swimmers in all of Canada to win a Gold Medal and in Toronto at the 2015 Para Pan Am Games won 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals making her the second highest medal winner for ALL of Canada in ALL sports in able-bodied and para sports. In 2016, she achieved her life-long ambition to be the best in the world at the Paralympic Games and did so with a Gold medal win at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games in the 100m Breaststroke.
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