Your gratitude is making a difference!
Your Sight Has Been Restored — Now You Can Help Someone See for the First Time
If you’ve experienced the joy of restored vision through Great Lakes Eye Care, you know what a difference it makes — driving with confidence, reading with ease, seeing your loved ones clearly again. Around the world, millions still live in darkness. Not because their condition is untreatable, but because they don’t have access to the care they need.
That’s why our Great Lakes Eye Care doctors and staff volunteer with Vision Outreach International — bringing life-changing cataract surgeries to remote villages and underserved communities. Your gift helps make it possible for a grandmother to see her grandchild’s face for the first time… a father to return to work… a child to finally see the classroom chalkboard. Your story can help someone else begin theirs.
Darkness to Light: One Patient’s Story
In Jamaica, a young woman in her late twenties—homeless, separated from her children, and facing total blindness—had one eye with serious retinal issues and the other with a cataract so dense she was blind in that eye.
Despite the complexity of the surgery and a poor prognosis, the team moved forward, hoping to restore even a small amount of sight. To everyone’s amazement, the very next day, she could see20/40out of the eye that had been blind. It was a powerful, hope-filled moment the team could only describe as a God moment.
– Jamaica 2025 Medical Team Member and VOI Board Member, Jim Duryee
Hope Through a Child’s Eyes
In Ecuador, a young boy injured his left eye a month ago while chopping wood when a flying branch fragment punctured his cornea and lens, leaving him blind in that eye. He was initially treated with only eye drops by another doctor. Upon examination, we found his eye filled with damaged lens material and elevated pressure from inflammation. Despite the severity, we successfully removed the debris and implanted a new lens. We’re hopeful and excited to see how much vision he regains.
-Ecuador 2025 Medical Team
Stan Pletcher, MD
Your gift isn’t just medical — it’s personal. It’s freedom. It’s joy.
Every dollar helps bring someone one step closer to a brighter future. Thank you for considering how your story can help change someone else’s.
What our doctors and staff say
I really enjoyed helping out the girl with Down syndrome this trip. She was a joy. Also we just had a fantastic team - what a great combination of experience, ability, and Godly joy.
Cathie Shradder Harrell , MD
It was so great to be able to talk to the patients and find out a little about each of them instead of running through a billion patients without any idea of their story.
Aaron Tsai, MD