A New Optometrist Arrives in Saratoga Springs

WILTON — Dr. Matthew Beaulieu’s road to becoming an optometrist was a long and winding one, but a clinic at the DeKalb County School District in Georgia served as an especially meaningful moment along the way.

“It was a beautiful but difficult experience,” Beaulieu told Saratoga TODAY. 

The then-budding optometrist delivered a new pair of glasses to a girl in the district who had never had corrective lenses before.

“When she put them on, she just started weeping. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you okay? What’s wrong?’ Her response was, ‘You don’t know what these mean to me. I can actually see the poster on the other side of the room. I couldn’t tell you who was walking in the room before. This means that I’m going to be able to get my license so I can bring my mom to her medical appointments.’”

Recalling the story made Beaulieu emotional. 

“Seeing what [eye care] can do for other people has been very impactful along the way, in that case and many more,” he said.

Beaulieu now finds himself in Saratoga Springs, which has been his new home for the past year. In January, he joined Zieker Eye, a full-service ophthalmology practice in Wilton.

“I’m loving how family-forward Saratoga Springs is,” said Beaulieu, who has a young daughter. “The people are very welcoming and kind…life feels a bit easier here and kinder here than it did in Boston.”

In Boston, Beaulieu studied at the New England College of Optometry, which was established in 1894 and holds the distinction of being one of the oldest continually operating colleges of its kind in the country. 

Years before that, Beaulieu had a job at LensCrafters, which was his first experience doing anything eye-related. While there, he decided to become an optician and soon started managing the sales floor. Then, the store lost half of its lab techs in only a month, spurring Beaulieu to enter the lab for the first time. After a while, though, he got tired of middle management, so he started training to become an ophthalmic technician. Wanting to do even more, he knew he had to go back to school, which is how he ended up at New England.

As a child, Beaulieu’s first encounter with glasses was an unpleasant one. They made him nauseous and he disliked wearing them. He didn’t have another eye exam until he was an adult working at LensCrafters. It was then he began to realize the difference that good eye care can make in someone’s life.

“I can look back and see how it would’ve made a difference for me growing up if I would’ve had care that I could understand or that connected with me better,” Beaulieu said.

Now, Beaulieu hopes to bring that type of care to Saratoga Springs.