Life isn’t always fair. We have bad days, good days, and “meh” days. One constant that complements any of those categories is ice cream. Ice cream is something that is shared whether you’re celebrating a big win, wallowing after a breakup, or bringing to a friend who is home sick.
Vice Cream Founder, Dan Schorr, saw the joy that ice cream could bring people when he was in college. Dan paid for school by driving a Good Humor ice cream truck during the summer. He served families, adults, and children, who would all stop by his truck and choose their favorite treat. He noticed how happy ice cream made people.
Years later, Dan was crushing it at his marketing agency, staying active, got married, everything was going right. But, as all things in life, we never know what is going to happen next.
One afternoon, Dan was perusing the aisles at Target when he received the phone call that no one wants: “we found something.” Dan was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Lymphoma and was given 12 weeks to live if untreated. He didn’t understand. He had always been the healthy one in his group of friends. He did triathlons, ran marathons, ate well. How could this be happening? What now? As any of us would be, he was terrified.
Dan tried to stay positive. He decided to put all of his effort and energy into things that he felt passionate about, focusing on things that provided him more energy and brought him happiness. He continued his love of athletics – he ran, biked, and continued to work out. At this point, the product that he saw bring happiness to so many people, came back into his own life. Dan began thinking about creating his own company, and ice cream was a natural.
Dan wanted his ice cream to be REAL ice cream – not the low-fat, no sugar, dairy-free, fake stuff. Life is all about moderation. Be healthy – go to the gym, drink water, eat enough protein and veggies. But at the end of the day – dig into a pint of deliciousness, without feeling guilty. Thus, VICE CREAM was born with a tag line, Live Life. Dig In.
As of August, 2014, Dan is cancer-free. It was a long, hard fight. Dan feels both grateful and humbled that he is someone who gets to celebrate their cancer-free anniversary.
He now celebrates what he calls “miracle moments” – those moments throughout the day that you learn to appreciate once you realize that you could not have been there for them. These miracle moments are simple things, such as picking up your daughters from school, seeing the stars on a cloudless night, enjoying a day outside in the spring, listening to the waves of the ocean crush against rocks. Once you open your eyes to how valuable life is – and how quickly it can change – you realize just how many “miracle moments” pass by you every day.
And that is why Dan decided build a brand that simply makes people happy. Vice Cream also gives back to cancer-causes, by supporting cancer patients, doctors, nurses and organizations that care for patients and their families.
Vice Cream has flavors such as Choc of Shame, Higher Grounds, Afternoon Delight, Breakfast in Bed and Bourbon Mash that even just given the names, you know you’re in for an indulging treat. Vice Cream is now sold at Roche Brothers, Star Market, Big Y, Super Stop and Shop, and Tedeschi.
Look out for Vice Cream near you!