Sophia Capo, OD, FAAO, from Toronto, found herself in an uncommon setting immediately after her residency, a placement in tiny Salmon Arm, British Columbia. At the tail end of the pandemic, she certainly did not expect that interlude would reshape the course of her career.
But seeing the gaps in care in the interior of British Columbia, with pediatric ophthalmology wait times measured in years for some patients, and only a handful of specialists serving a broad geography, Dr. Capo decided to set roots here with A B See Optometry and Vision Therapy in Kelowna, in not-quite-as-rural British Columbia.
To establish credibility, she volunteered in the ophthalmologists’ clinic one day a week for a year, triaging a long wait list, treating what she could and referring the rest. In that year, she says, she referred only two patients for specialist care — a sign, she believes, that appropriately trained optometrists can manage many conditions locally and reduce system bottlenecks.
The experience of practicing in a community with long specialist wait lists and limited local resources made clear a pattern she would see again and again: children and vulnerable adults not receiving recommended care because coverage or out‑of‑pocket costs put treatment out of reach.
HELPING THE UNDERSERVED
“I kept running into the same problem,” Dr. Capo says. Under Canadian provincial plans, optometry billing and coverage work differently than in the U.S. Patients often get a single partially funded appointment each year; if they require follow‑up vision therapy, specialty lenses or multiple appointments, the remainder of the cost falls to families.
“If you need a pair of glasses and the government only covers $150 or $200 and you need progressives, it can be a challenge,” she explains. For conditions that require ongoing therapy or specialized optics, these limits mean children may never complete the evidence‑based treatments their clinicians prescribe.
Dr. Capo found herself doing what many clinicians do in the face of need: quietly covering the cost of care or eyeglasses when a family could not pay. But generosity alone felt unsystematic and unsustainable. She and her mother, who still lives in Toronto and previously worked as a teacher, decided to create a nonprofit to target those unmet needs — not just for patients at Dr. Capo’s clinic, but across the community where many people slipped through formal supports.
Her mother’s background made her a natural partner. “She’s organized, and she’s worked with kids for years. Now that she’s winding down her career, she wanted a meaningful project,” Dr. Capo says. The two set up the foundation to raise funds specifically for evidence‑based pediatric care, vision therapy follow‑ups and essential optical aids. They wanted money to be available quickly and locally, especially for newcomers and families in crisis who face additional barriers to accessing care.
The need was immediate and stark. Refugee‑serving organizations contacted them about newcomer children who had never had coverage or who arrived with untreated vision problems. A local women’s shelter reached out with an even more harrowing demand. Women fleeing intimate partner violence often suffer traumatic brain injuries that leave them with binocular vision problems requiring prisms or other specialized lenses. In urgent departures many people leave with nothing — no eyeglasses, no contact lenses, no funds. “Those stories broke my heart,” Dr. Capo says. “You can’t expect someone fleeing violence to be able to sort out vision care on top of everything else.”
FUNDING THE FOUNDATION
To jump‑start fundraising and community awareness, Dr. Capo tied the nonprofit’s launch to events she was already involved with. The timing coincided with recognition she received earlier this year as British Columbia Young Optometrist of the Year. And in early May, she participated in her first triathlon, finishing in a very respectable 1:36;45. The triathlon proceeds benefitted the foundation, and with a match from EssilorLuxottica, it raised more than $10,000. Beyond the financial help, Dr. Capo sees another priority for the foundation: using funds to support evidence‑based treatments and to educate families and referring clinicians about why these therapies matter.
Dr. Capo emphasizes that the foundation is intentionally local. While international missions and large, corporate‑backed initiatives serve important roles, she says she wanted to ensure that money raised locally helped under-served neighbors. The nonprofit’s early grants have gone to families, newcomers and shelter residents who needed glasses, vision therapy follow‑ups or immediate optical interventions after injury.
For Dr. Capo, the work is an extension of why she became an optometrist: to help people see and learn and to remove the practical barriers keeping that work from being completed. “It’s about making sure our community is taken care of, not just patients who walk into my door,” she says.
Learn more about the foundation here.
Read more content about ODs building specialty practices here.
