Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Evette.
Hi Amy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My mom had me in a soup kitchen serving around the age of 7 or 8. I would light up. I loved going and I still feel a since of overwhelming passion when I think back on those events. I loved that she didn’t reserve my childhood for simple safe activities. She pushed boundaries — I was by far, the youngest one there.
The rest of my childhood was Christ-focused as well. Church Sunday, Wednesday, Camp Meetings, and more. My favorite event as a pre-teen was Mission Work Camp. My best friend’s dad put it on for our church with the simple premise of find a family in need and go help. It was the best. We painted fences and houses etc. (probably very poorly), but we were so proud to have done it. I always left feeling like I wanted to do more.
My mom didn’t stop pushing philanthropic boundaries when I went to high school. In 10th grade, she took me on my first trip to Nakuru, Kenya. I felt like my real-self for the first time. Like everything made sense, like I could breathe. We as a family went several times together. All in all, I think I’ve been 12 times now. Through the years, my church partnered with a PCEA (Presbyterian Church of East Africa) to build an orphanage that has a primary and secondary school on campus. They host over 500 kids during the school year. I fell in love with a ministry that offered housing on campus called Nakuru 3:16 (now called Daraja 360 (Please look them up!)) They provided job training to women and their kids. Such a neat ministry.
My college summers were filled with volunteering at The Living Vine Christian Maternity home in Savannah, GA and trips back to Nakuru (when I could fundraiser enough money to get myself there.) I often worked in the maternity home’s thrift stores and hung out with the women going through their program. As far as cities go, Savannah was a pretty incredible spot. I’d move back in a heartbeat. I believed in what they were doing to help these women and went back three times.
After graduating from UGA with a BS in Child and Family Development in the winter of 2009, I simultaneously worked three jobs and barely could make ends meet. I lived with my sister and pinched pennies. (My sister, by the way, is by far the coolest person on the planet – you should do an interview on her.) And when I got settled, I started fundraising again. In 2011 I moved to Nakuru for a 9 month stay. It was the hardest thing I had ever done thus far. When I moved back to the States, I moved back into the maternity home for a year. This time I pretty much stuck to the thrift store work – I had a lot of healing to do.
When my time was up, I moved to Greenville to help a friend with a non-profit start up. I wasn’t able to stick with that financially and eventually ended up working in the food and beverage industry, then into sales. Feeling like I had begun to lose myself and not knowing anyone in Greenville that would hire me, I decided to move back home to Conyers, Georgia. I didn’t, my boyfriend at the time proposed and we got married outside, under a tree with our initials carved into it, on a beautiful autumn day in Pumpkintown.
When we started our family, I decided to go back to school to get my Masters in NonProfit Administration. I finished this up while holding my newborn baby boy, River. This degree led me to Servants for Sight. It is truly a shame that when you move to nonprofit, your salary gets chopped into a 3rd. Why do the people who want to help others get paid so little? That’s not right. Regardless, it was the right career move for me. I spent 2.5 years with SFS before becoming director. And it is the best job I’ve ever had.
My husband, son, 2 year old daughter, dog, and I live in River Falls. Sounded by nature.
SFS went to Nakuru once already to do eye care. We will go again and I plan to push boundaries, just like my mom, and take my kids with me when they are ready.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course there have been challenges. But we have not yet run into a problem we couldn’t overcome.
For example, our last mobile unit, whom we affectional called Ivan (the eye-van) had a lot of miles and had seen a lot of patients (that mobile unit probably hosted over 6,300 people for vision screenings). He (it) would fall apart and we would put it back together, then something would need to be replaced, then something else would go out, and so on and so forth.
I will probably never forget my Program Director, Paul Shanks, calling me in 2024. I could tell he was angry, but with an abundance of self control he said, “Amy, the fuel tank fell off while I was driving down Wade Hampton.” Panic set in of course. I asked, “Are you okay?!” “Yes,” he said, “but we need a new mobile unit.”
I look back and laugh at this — the absurdity of the situation did not match the calm quiet communication. Thankfully no one was hurt and the incident didn’t cause any accidents.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Here is a link to our impact report:
“On June 18th Mr. Larry was very apprehensive about staff taking him to Piedmont Surgery Center for his cataract removal. Myself and another staff member assured all would go well. When his surgery was completed and the surgical staff came to get us to assist with his discharge, we walked in the area where he was waiting. He said to us, “I can see that clock on that far wall and it says 11:05 am, I haven’t seen that far in a long time. As we went to get in the Van to leave he said “WOW, the trees are so green and beautiful! Before this I thought everything was gray.” After that day Mr. Bearden has started participating in activities such as art classes and bingo that he used to not participate in because of his sight. When I asked him about his experience with Servents for Sight he stated, “I have been blessed that they chose to help me and will always be thankful to them for my sight.”
Servants for Sight was founded in 2009 by Greenville doctors who wanted to coordinate their efforts to serve their neighbors in poverty with free and low-cost, high-quality eye care. Through a network of referral agencies, an Eyecare Mobile Unit that conducts free vision screenings, and a growing roster of pro bono providers, SFS offers reading and prescription glasses, eye surgeries, and eye disease treatments to restore sight and health to the Upstate’s lowest income residents.
Our story began when Darrell Jervey, MD connected with Bradley Williams, MD and Kurt Heitman, MD, owners of Southern Eye Associates. Dr. Jervey had traveled to Haiti to perform cataract surgeries since the 1970’s. He even connected with a student wanting to study ophthalmology and helped him get his medical degree. Dr. Jervey, took Dr. Williams and Dr. Heitman to the Dominican Republic to perform surgeries.
These trips, along with many years of serving those from under resourced neighborhoods in Greenville, inspired Dr. Williams, Dr. Heitman, Dr. Jake Bostrom (owner of Palmetto Eye and Laser), and James Bailey, CPA to officially form a 501(c)(3) in 2009. The organization was to be called Surgeons for Sight and it’s mission was to provide cataract surgery for those without insurances or the ability to pay.
The organization grew. The doctors found peace in participating. Like many things, it is easy to get caught up in the business or financial side of owning a practice, but volunteering to help people that wanted to work, wanted to take good care of their kids or aging parents, but simply couldn’t because of their sight loss, brought purpose. Other doctors began to join as volunteers, and not all of them were surgeons. So, the organization made a major change in 2016 and took on the name Servants for Sight. This was not only important for the inclusion of the very valued optometrists, but it also communicates the Christian beliefs that the organization still carries to this day.
Now Servants for Sight was hiring employees, providing routine eye exams, giving surgeries and restoring sight. Still, there were improvements to be made. The doctors were giving free eye exams to individual based on their income and insurance status, but there was one more factor they needed to button up, the need for eye care. So, with the guidance of James Bailey, CPA and board treasurer, and a generous donation from Golf for Greenville, the organization bought its first screening unit. This unit allowed Servants for Sight volunteers and employee to travel to the free medical clinics to provide quality eye screenings. Now, the free clinics would no longer have to try and equip and staff eye care services. Instead, SFS’s (Servants for Sight’s) mobile unit came to them and their patients.
This screening program was beyond successful. Now, the patients’ eye care needs could be determined before providing a very valuable pro-bono appointment. The mobile unit dramatically increased the number of patients that could be seen by SFS and their doctors because the unit could handle the patients that were seeing 20/20, just needing readers, or just needing a retina scan or pressure check. In fact, it became so successful, that in 2024, Eastside High School Student Council granted SFS their spirit week for a new mobile unit!
Now, we drive a beautiful 40 ft bus that cannot only screen, but also perform eye exams. This unit travels throughout the Upstate to homeless shelters, Access Health locations, free clinics, churches, and anywhere it is needed. And SFS still travels internationally too. Last year, our teams traveled to Kenya, El Salvador, Egypt, Uganda, and Ecuador.
In 2025, thanks to support from people and foundations in our communities, Servants for Sight screened 5,815 patients for vision loss and provided 2,418 pro bono eye care appointments. We also provided 5,140 pairs of prescription glasses and funded 152 eye surgeries and other treatments for eye disease, restoring and protecting sight for hundreds of our most vulnerable neighbors!
Pricing:
- A $500 donation can provide a cataract surgery!
- $250 can provide a free eye screening for 33 people!
- $100 gives 6 people an eye appointment on our mobile unit!
- $50 covers someone’s glasses that just wants to keep their job!
- $25 covers the initial cost of a new patient into our program!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.servantsforsight.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servantsforsight/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServantsforSight1
