PHOTO PROVIDED Dr. Mel Dr. Mel Youngs DC, PA Chiropractic Physicians and Wellness Center.

She grew up at her parents’ ice cream shop, “Yum’s” Ice Cream Store, in downtown Cape Coral.

She got to know the customers and the community.

When it was time for Dr. Youngs to open her own business, the building at 916 Cape Coral Parkway, East, stayed in the family, was revamped and converted to her own chiropractic practice.

This year marks 20 years in business.

PHOTO PROVIDED Dr. Mel Youngs

“What separates us from other professionals is that we’re really a team that goes after why people aren’t feeling well and we do the detective work,” she said. “We’re not just treating symptoms.”

You can tell Dr. Youngs loves what she does.

“We help people do school work, get on the floor and play with their grandchildren, and things like that,” she said. “It just feels right.”

For the 15th anniversary, there was a dunk tank, music, a popcorn machine and snow cones.

This year, due to the pandemic, Dr. Youngs and her team celebrated with each other and their patients, with proper social distancing measures in place.

“It was cool in itself to celebrate internally,” she said. “It feels good.”

Dr. Youngs says she feels purposeful in her work and she’s happy to do it with other practitioners who feel that same sense of purpose.

“I’ve been lucky to assemble this team,” she said. “We’ve helped so many patients and we enjoy the craft. To do what you do among other people who also love what they do is really rewarding.”

There are four other chiropractors, a registered nurse, reiki practitioner, two estheticians, six massage therapists and a certified chiropractor assistant.

“The synergy that comes from all of us, who all are amazing at our craft and incredibly passionate about what we do, when you put that group together, it’s synergy like no other,” Dr. Youngs said.

“Patients come to the office and go, ‘Wow, I have never been to a place and walked in and felt that energy,” she said.

Twenty years ago, Dr. Youngs started the practice with one patient.

“We have a great rapport with patients and their families,” she said. “We see moms and dads and their kids. We see customers of the ice cream store.”

Dr. Youngs compared getting your body adjusted to aligning your car.

“The body needs maintenance and upkeep,” she said. “It functions better that way. Until you get an adjustment, it’s hard to explain the difference you’ll feel.”

In college, Dr. Youngs was a runner and she sprained her ankle.

“I got adjusted and I didn’t have a problem anymore,” she said. “It blew my mind that an adjustment could change everything.”

When Dr. Youngs was going to school to be a chiropractor, she knew she wanted to have her own practice. After a conversation with her father, they decided to revamp the ice cream store.

Dr. Youngs, her mother and her father remodeled the building themselves.

But they kept the same phone number.

This was 20 years ago — without Google.

“No one calls a doctor’s office on day one,” Dr. Youngs said. “How do people find you?”

When people called looking for “Yum’s” Ice Cream Store, Dr. Youngs would tell them who she was and asked if they needed a chiropractor.

That worked well and helped Dr. Youngs establish herself.

“It’s really so humbling,” she said. “To be in the same place where my dad scooped ice cream is the same place I adjust, like the same spot in the building.”