Phone: 780-417-3937

We do what we can to help!

At Glasses To Go we have been fortunate enough to be able to give back to our favourite charitable organizations by volunteering our time, raising awareness and making a donations of gently worn and rejuvenated used glasses.

Many individuals, locally and abroad, need the gift of sight and Glasses To Go has tried to make a difference for them.

We support our favourite charitable organization

We have given aid to the gift of sight with local agencies and individuals in need of eye examinations, eyewear and lenses. Abroad, our aid has consisted of humanitarian trips to orphanages in Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) and to the disaster zones in Haiti in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.

Myself (Christine Zacharko) Melanie Normandeau and 2 other local Sherwood Park women joined 8 medical and dental professionals from California for a medical/eye sight clinical mission to Haiti. The local group took with them 12 fully packed suitcases containing prescription eyeglasses, safety frames, reading glasses and medical supplies (to help with common problems such as pink eye and other infections). When the team returns, they do so with only the “shirts on their backs” as everything else is left for Haitian aid.

Want to make a difference? Please donate your gently used frames and lenses. We will clean, polish and make minor repairs such as tightening screws as necessary before we pack them to take to Haiti.

We take our sight and healthcare for granted at times so it is wonderful to feel appreciation for this blessing by “paying it forward”. With your donation we can literally bestow the “gift of sight” to the less fortunate who are impoverished and live in disaster stricken areas without the resources to improve eye health and eyesight.

For more information, please email: glasses2go@shaw.ca

Marbial, HAITI

International Women’s Day

Jeff Cherubin Domond Foundation - 2014

Alberta Cancer Foundation

Friends of Diversity
Christine Zacharko

Appreciated for her role in sharing love and kindness to the needy through her work in Haiti, Christine accepts her 2016 award.

Haiti Medical Mission
from Christine’s perspective

Opticians Council of Canada
Scroll down to the artical entitled
“So Much More Than An Eye Clinic”

Jeff Cherubin Domond Foundation - 2016

Strathcona County International

Women’s Day Award

Giving Back

In March of 2012 and 2014, our vision team traveled as part of a medical mission to a rural community named Marbial, outside of the city of Jacmel which is South East of Port-au-Prince. While it was a beautiful mountainous area with flowing rivers, I was shocked to find out the water was contaminated and full of parasites. The heat and the long line-ups of people for clinical visits were not something I was prepared for emotionally. The locals’ poor living conditions and lack of hope for a better life, often brought me to exhaustion and tears.

We examined over 100 patients daily: elderly needing reading glasses, children with presbyopia, many patients suffering from pterygium, cataracts among both young and old due to severe dehydration and rampant pink eye infections. We also gave out hundreds of pairs of safety eyewear. Unfortunately, we ran our of medications and had to turn down many patients whose eyesight condition would lead to blindness.

Our patients were gracious, waiting hours to be seen, and grateful for anything that we could do to alleviate their vision problems.

More ophthalmologists and optometrists are needed for any future missions as well as more medical supplies.

“RE” SPECTACLE

Helping Haiti See - Sherwood Park News

We help locally too!

Glasses To Go truly feels privileged to play a small part in missions abroad, such as in Haiti, but we also try to help locally by donating to the Bissell Centre, Edmonton and in Alberta locations such as the Whitefish Kikino Settlement.

Please keep us in mind and donate your gently used eyeglass cases, reading glasses, sunglasses and outdated prescription glasses. We will do our best to find them a new home!

Glasses To Go truly feels privileged to play a small part in the Haiti vision mission and we are determined to continue our efforts in Haiti in future missions.

We wish to thank all our friends, clients and other supporters of our mission….without you we couldn’t do our work!