EYE FOCUS | FEATURE
“To see their inner strength empowers me to try
harder, work longer and never give up. We have no
excuses,” she says.
“May I challenge each and everyone to go out there
and make a difference in someone’s life. Be the
change. Help and always be kind!”
Zacharko started Glasses To Go from the basement
of her home in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton, in
July 1995.
She was inspired to open a business serving seniors
in nursing homes, hospitals and in their own homes
after witnessing the struggles her mother endured
while helping her grandmother, who was in a senior's
home, to get the medical and vision care she needed.
Optician Christine Zacharko helps a patient during a mission trip.
Changing
lives one person
at a time
By Denis Langlois
Christine Zacharko is making a difference both at
home and abroad.
Through her mobile optical business Glasses To Go,
the Alberta optician provides eyecare and eyewear
services to seniors in their homes and at their bed-
sides in and around Edmonton as part of a Senior
Solutions Team.
Zacharko also volunteers on humanitarian trips,
assisting with eyesight clinics in the Dominican
Republic and Haiti.
She says her goal is to help make a difference in the
lives of people who need vision care the most. And
she says she continues to be inspired by those in the
most dire situations.
22 EYE FOCUS February Digital 2020
“I thought, ‘why does no one come here to help grand-
ma?” So I thought we should. We started serving
onsite care and I have never looked back,” she says.
“I love my seniors and caring for them. It takes a lot
of time, love and patience to work with the senior
population. I am passionate about it. I know it shows.
They feel the love and that is why it works.”
Zacharko participated in her first mission trip to
Haiti in 2012, two years after a powerful earthquake
devastated the impoverished country.
She teamed up with the Jeff Cherubin Domond Foun-
dation, which was offering medical missions in Haiti.
She returned to run the eye clinic in both 2014 and 2016.
She is planning to return again this March.
At the eye clinics, hundreds of people show up each
day to be seen and treated. They range in age from
small children to seniors.
The team offers eye exams to residents, many of
whom are illiterate.
“A traditional Snell chart does not work, so we use a
falling E chart,” Zacharko says.
The team also treats patients for pink eye, provides
hats for those with cataracts and macular degenera-
tion and brings needles and thread to test people’s
near vision.