Yeah. Mhm. In Acton alongside the farms and hiking trails as a walkable village
centre with an indoor outdoor look and feel. West Acton's leafy streets are
dotted with small independent businesses, close books, restaurants
and a brewery, even a family owned pharmacy. It's all here. It's very
close knit village works on massachusetts Avenue houses several of
these places, including acting coffee house run by retired english teacher
Bill Ray. I care about coffee and it used to be that, that we'd be traveling
and always the coffee was the problem because it would always be bad. It's so
hard to make it right for years. Ray and his wife hunka, also a teacher had
joked about owning a cafe one day. Their daughter said the local cafe was
up for sale. Soon the family joke became a reality. It was supposed to be
a retirement plan. This little whimsical plant. My wife did a ton of
research. She traveled with a group to Honduras to study coffee. We send our
kids to peru with our roaster Dean's beans to see how it's actually done
today. Acting coffee house offers a variety of Fair trade coffee and
specialty drinks including Macha Latte. Ray says community support in West
Acton is a source of pride locals, he says have shown up throughout the covid
19 crisis. I had customers who bought pounds and pounds more than they needed
just to keep us going or gift cards, restaurants and cafes, a very thin
profit margins. So we did it mostly to be a part of the community. It's a very
nice place to be.
Mhm right next door. Another second act for a former teacher. Mimi Kirkman is
one of three sets of friends who owned the Westside creamery. My partners,
David Wendy, we're the ones with some restaurant experience and often talked
about what acting needed was an ice cream shop.
We are all homemade small batch. We typically carry 28-30 regular flavors.
We do use a high butterfat. So if you're dieting, you may not want to
listen for those with other restrictions. Good news. Although we
make our ice cream on shared equipment, we take extreme precautions to make it
allergen friendly. So we're going to make a gluten free stinky sandwich. In
fact, Kirkman and her daughter have celiac disease. So gluten free items
are a specialty here. Pistachio is a customer favorite here, says Kirkman.
Other winners include green monster mint with crushed Oreos and seasonal
flavors, mango and peach, I'd say five out of 10 little girls that come in,
want strawberry with rainbow sprinkles and just about every pooch who comes by
digs into a doggy ice cream bowl without even looking up uh indulgence.
Just down the street from village works a little yellow building with a big
following the West Acton Citizens Library. Founded in 1883. It was
started as a subscription library and it cost 50 cents each to be a member
library Director, jennifer Friedman says that acting funds and maintains
two independent libraries, including the much larger Acting Memorial Library.
They keep this place open because of its historic value, its location in the
West Acton Village and because in the past whenever they've tried to close it,
there's been an uprising. The Citizens Library is not part of the library
network. Library books that we own, only people who come to the library can
check them out. It often allows people to get books quicker because space is
tight. Friedman says the collection of 10,000 volumes is mostly limited to
popular titles and Children's books. People go on to our library website,
email me or call with a list of the books that they want and I leave them
on the bench right outside across the road. Volunteers maintain a busy book
donation drop off. Meanwhile, a steady stream of Citizens Library patrons
stopped by some enjoying a bit of alfresco reading. We are connected by
sidewalks within half a mile to 435 residences. You can walk here and walk
the village and then come to the library and stop at the playground.
That's the kind of place west activism.
Thank you