Magill's Ice Cream has been a part of the Lakewood community for 26 years and although it has had several proprietors through the years, it remains a family-owned business specializing in homemade ice cream and ice cream cakes for every occasion.

Bob and Margaret Magill started the Lakewood Magill's Ice Creamery in Lakewood in 1981. It was purchased by Bill and Cordelle Fehr in 1997 and in 2003, Tom Kinney purchased the store. Tom was only 20 years old at the time and certainly a young entrepreneur, but he knew the ice cream business well. He had been working at Magill's since he was 15 years old when a friend of his referred him for the job. At age 17, he became a supervisor and about three years later, when Bill and Cordelle Fehr offered to sell him the business, his family helped him come up with the necessary capital and he became the new owner of Magill's Ice Cream. His family continues to be supportive and also great customers!

Tom grew up in Lakewood and is the fourth of five boys. He is presently attending Metro as a business management major and will graduate from the program this December. Tom said the ice cream business is seasonal and he usually puts in 50 to 55 hours a week during the summer and 30 to 40 hours a week during the rest of the year. Although he is around ice cream a good deal of time and is used to the lifestyle, he still enjoys eating the ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream, there are 76 different flavors and vanilla, chocolate and strawberry hold the three most popular spots. This month's special flavor is pumpkin and will be available throughout Thanksgiving. Additional favorite flavors include "Piece of Cake," which is made of vanilla and chocolate cookie crunch and "Tin Roof," vanilla ice-cream with chocolate-covered peanuts- yum! Tom said that half of his business is ice cream cakes and they are truly works of arts, beautifully decorated for any and every occasion. The signature ice cream cake is "Ice Cream/Cookie Crunch."

In addition to the ice cream and ice cream cakes, Magill's serves old-fashioned sodas and shakes, soups and salads, and everything is reasonable priced and all homemade. They also have beautiful birthday and all-occasion cards for sale at the shop. Tom has developed a trade-out business with Hollywood Video in the same shopping center where they promote each other's businesses using special coupons.

I'm grateful to my dear friend, Paula Young, for telling me about Tom Kinney. Paula has been a patron of Magill's Ice Cream, buying ice-cream and ice-cream cakes throughout the years, first from the previous owners and for the past several years, from Tom. She started to notice that Tom was there every time she went to buy ice cream. She couldn't get over how friendly and dedicated he was and she started chatting with him. She was astounded to find out that he had bought the shop at age 20 and was successfully running this business for the past five years with the help of his store manager, Diane Plante.

Paula wanted me to meet Tom and invited me to have lunch at Magill's and it was a treat- the lunch was delicious, the ice-cream superb, and Tom was just how Paula had described him, a friendly, dedicated, wonderful young man.

Magill's Ice Cream is located at 8016 West Jewell Avenue, Lakewood, 80232, just west on Wadsworth on the south side of Jewell Avenue. The phone number is 303-986-9968.