Ryanne Mace lived in the Newport Cove neighborhood of Carpentersville beginning in 1995. She attended and graduated from Parkview Elementary School, Carpentersville Middle School, and ultimately Dundee Crown High School (class of 2006). She was active in many clubs and served on the Carpentersville Peer Jury for six years.

During her high school years, Ryanne held jobs at the West Dundee OfficeMax location as well as with Professional Counseling Services. During those years, she decided to devote her life to helping others by becoming a psychologist. Ryanne always had a great passion for improving the emotional lives of her friends and was determined to make that her life’s work. On February 14, 2008 while attending a class at NIU’s Cole Hall, Ryanne’s dream of a lifetime of helping others was abruptly ended.

In an effort to realize Ryanne’s goal of becoming a counselor for others, her family has established the Ryanne Mace Memorial Scholarship fund through the Northern Illinois University Foundation. The intent of this fund is to reward those who are pursuing a graduate level degree in clinical psychology. It is their hope that Ryanne’s desire to make the world a better place by helping others have good mental health can in a small way be achieved through their efforts.

Van’s Frozen Custard is a family owned and operated fresh ice cream parlor that hopes to become your family’s favorite place to join together to eat a meal, get a snack or to celebrate a special event.  Conveniently located at 300 W. Main Street/Huntley Road in Carpentersville, IL, we are just north of Spring Hill Mall with easy access to Route 31 (1 ½ blocks east).  Every day we feature our delicious homemade vanilla and chocolate frozen custard along with a special flavor of the day (our Flavor of the Day Calendar is available at vansfrozencustard.com).  Frozen custard is a top of the line ice cream made fresh throughout the day so it is never hard frozen prior to being served.  In fact, frozen custard is served a little warmer than traditional ice cream so you can taste all of the flavor.  Frozen custard also differs from traditional ice cream in that it has far less air mixed in during production.  Traditional ice cream can be as much as 50% air.  Who wants to pay for air?  At most, frozen custard has only 20% air, making it taste creamy and smooth..  

While at Van’s you can enjoy a simple cup of frozen custard or select from one of our crowd pleasing options such as a Turtle Sundae or a Jack& Jill Sundae (your choice of custard covered with chocolate sauce on one side and marshmallow cream on the other). If you feel adventurous, you can design your own sundae – the combinations of toppings are only limited by your imagination.   Kids sundaes include a Big Top Sundae (vanilla frozen custard, chocolate sauce, animal crackers, and rainbow sprinkles), the Muddy Sundae (chocolate frozen custard with chocolate sauce, crushed Oreo pieces, and gummy worms), or the Cookie Monster (vanilla frozen custard with chocolate sauce, crushed chocolate chip cookies, and blue sprinkles).  Banana splits, floats, malts and shakes are also available. 

Common to the world’s most famous frozen custard shops, Van’s features the frozen custard Concrete.  One of our national competitors copied the famous concrete with their Blizzard ®.  A concrete is any available flavor of frozen custard with your choice of toppings or mix-ins added to make a thick and rich taste temptation.

Van’s also serves at least one flavor of our frozen sorbet/Italian Ice.  The sorbets are dairy-free, fat-free, and cholesterol-free selections made with the finest 100% fruit purees or juices.  If you are hungry, Van’s makes a number of hearty sandwiches (Vandwiches) and quesadillas.  We also feature a hot dog special everyday.  Our vanwiches are a meal in themselves or you can add chips or one of our nourishing soup selections to compliment your meal. 

Please come and visit Van’s Frozen Custard where you and your family can relax in our family atmosphere or enjoy our outdoor picnic area.  We promise to do everything we can to become your choice of places to go to enjoy a real ice cream treat.

Chad Van Acker is the owner of Van’s Frozen Custard.  Chad grew up in Elgin, attending McKinley Elementary School, Larsen Middle School and Elgin High School.  He first became interested in ice cream when visiting the Ben and Jerry’s Factory in Vermont during summer vacation following 7th grade.  His interest in becoming an entrepreneur never waned and after completing his degree in marketing at Tulane University and a year of teaching English in Mexico, Chad has embarked on his first major business venture.  .   .