Ryan Povlick is becoming well-known around Milwaukee for his success with Scratch Ice Cream, but his road to success has not been an easy one. He struggled with heroin and other substances for about 10 years and had a long road to become sober. Once he was back on his feet, he began putting his energy into helping others with drug addictions. At the same time he started Scratch, he also opened his own sober living house to help men like him get sober. As Povlick continues to build his ice cream business, he is always looking back at his experiences and helping men like him find success.
Ryan Povlick, founder of Scratch Ice Cream
At the young age of 14, Povlick started drinking. It didn’t take him long after that to start experimenting with other drugs like opiates and eventually heroin. “I would chase that feeling in any way that I could,” he says. By 15, his parents put him into treatment to get sober, but it would take him years in and out of treatment facilities and the courts to finally kick his addiction. The problem, he explains, was that his parents wanted to keep his addiction a secret, asking him not to talk about it. “I didn’t necessarily feel ashamed, but I knew they were,” says Povlick. As he sees it, that is the problem in our society—the subject of drug addiction is taboo which often stops addicts and their families from openly talking about it. This can be damaging to the person struggling.
Patient and Supportive
As he started getting back on his feet in his mid 20s, Povlick began working for his aunt and uncle in their frozen yogurt shop Yo Mama. They were patient and supportive, teaching him about the business and the yoghurt recipes. It didn’t take him long to start experimenting on his own with ice cream recipes and soon developed his own product. With some financial assistance from his aunt and uncle, Povlick launched Scratch in 2015.
It was around the same time that he opened his own sober living house which offered structure and community for recovering addicts. There is no easy solution on how to recover from addiction, explains Povlick, but the best answer he found is by creating connections. As an addict, he would seclude himself from others because it was easy and comfortable. But true healing takes a community and that is what he built in his sober living houses. In the houses, all the men must come together every day to do chores, have a house meeting and attend an AA meeting. On their path to recovery, they learn how to openly express their feelings and build relationships.
Povlick has come a long way and continues to openly tell his story because he wants to show people that drug addiction is something that should be talked about. Now with locations at the Crossroads Collective and the Zócalo Food Park, Scratch has grown tremendously and Povlick proves that people can overcome addiction. As he reflects on his past mistakes, he says that he has learned not to judge others and to be open minded to their experiences. Drug addiction is a very real and present issue in our city and the first step to helping addicts is by talking about the problem.
Learn more at www.scratchicecream.com.
Read the article on the Shepherd Express, part of the regular column “Hero of the Week.”