Dignitaries assisted Dr. Darren Phillips in cutting the ribbon at D&A Optometry’s new east side location on April 6. From left: Mayor Gerald Aalbers, MP Rosemarie Falk, optometrist and co-owner Dr. Darren Phillips, and MLA Colleen Young. Photo courtesy of Narra Studios
Excitement was in the air as husband and wife co-owners Dr. Darren Phillips and Adele Wakaruk hosted hundreds of guests at their new location.
D&A Optometry, located on the east side of the city, has been open since October, but the couple decided to wait until April 6 for their grand opening event.
“By 10:05 there was just a burst of people through the door, it was actually pretty amazing to see,” said Phillips, adding the gift bags promised to the first 100 people were gone in roughly 35 minutes.
“For a new business, we didn’t know what to expect. The community support has just been phenomenal.”
He said the support of their customers means the world to them.
“The reason we ended up completely opening up on our own was so that we could maintain patient care to the level that we want. We want to do what’s right for each person and their eyes,” said Phillips.
There were also some dignitaries in attendance at the grand opening ceremony: Mayor Gerald Aalbers, MLA Colleen Young, and MP Rosemarie Falk participated in the ribbon cutting.
“For all three of them to take the time out of their day on a Saturday was just amazing,” said Phillips, who has been practising optometry in Lloyd since 2016.
He said after years of working alongside an optical shop, they decided to open a full-service location of their own.
“We decided, let’s just move on and do our own thing, so now we do glasses, lenses, contact lenses, exams—everything ourselves here,” said Phillips, adding they are looking to expand their capacity by adding another optometrist to the D&A team.
“We do plan to expand our services. I do need to get another optometrist working with us, because we have the space for it, we built it for that.”
Phillips said opening up their new location didn’t come without its challenges.
“Lloydminster is a unique location, so I have to have two licences with both Alberta and Saskatchewan, so to be honest it’s harder to do business from our perspective, but it’s worth it because our patients are great.
“We’ve got a really good community, and for a city, we have a really small-town feel.”
Phillips is no stranger to a small town, as he grew up in Two Hills, AB. That’s where his interest in optometry began.
“Back in high school, we did a dissection of a cow’s eye. Gross, but it was the coolest thing in the world. You open it up and there’s nothing to it, but our eyes are such an important part of our daily lives,” said Phillips, adding it’s been documented that losing your vision would be more detrimental to an individual’s life than losing a spouse, or even a limb.
“I knew I wanted to be a doctor of some sort, I knew I wanted to be in healthcare but as soon as I did that dissection it just kind of pointed me right into optometry.”
