Everyone in town has a story to tell and opinions to share. In this feature, we shine the spotlight on one resident to learn more about them and their connection to town.

Meet: Michael Torosian

Hopkinton Independent: What brought you to Hopkinton?
Michael Torosian: “Well, I married a townie. I came here in 1987 after marrying a townie from the Irvine family, Susan, and I’ve been here ever since. I grew up in Malden, just north of Boston.”

HI: What do you do for a living?
Torosian: I work for HCAM Television. I’m a production coordinator, so I produce all the television shows you see on local cable access. In my other job, I’m a full-time fire alarm operator for the town of Ashland and the Ashland Fire Department.”

Michael Torosian

HI: What do you do in your free time?
Torosian: “I do a lot of volunteering. For years I’ve always been involved in community, always believing in giving back. You know, you get out what you put in. With that, coaching Little League Baseball, softball, coached soccer, coached football. I’ve served on all the boards — I was a board member for all of ’em. Yeah, do whatever. I did a short time on the Hopkinton Youth Commission I was appointed to. I also volunteered for the Hopkinton Fire Department. I’ve been a call firefighter for Hopkinton for 32 years.”

HI: What makes Hopkinton stand out from other towns in your opinion?
Torosian: “When I came to town, there was 8,500 people. And what are we now, just tipping the scales of 18,000? So, it still has that small-town appeal. I don’t care how big it gets. You can always, always count on the community support for everything. Whether it is a young child with cancer, a tragic death in the family to times like this [social distancing and quarantining], the community is just out there supporting everybody the best they can. It doesn’t have to be of the scales of Project Just Because. It doesn’t have to be that big. The neighbors take care of the neighbors and the citizens just try to help out and be there for everybody.”

HI: You’re very active on the town Facebook groups and pages. Why are you so passionate about social media?
Torosian: “One of the reasons why I do what I do with the [town Facebook group] page and all the social media postings is our mission at HCAM is connecting the community, and my big passion, it’s not like making TV shows, playing with all the cool equipment, it is keeping the community connected to the information. So, connecting the non-profits and what they do and the people who make those go, making sure everyone knows about it. All the talented kids in this community, between the concerts and the plays and the sporting events, trying to cover as many of those as possible, because of the talent that the whole community, not just the parents, should see. I think everyone should see and know about it, how fortunate they are and how blessed they are to live in this town. It’s all about giving to the community.”

HI: What are some of your favorite places around town?
Torosian: “I believe in staying local, keep it local, keeping the businesses going. Whether it’s Hopkinton Drug, the schools, Cornell’s, Bill’s Pizzeria, you know, Carbone’s — I go to them all.”

HI: What are some of your favorite Hopkinton memories or experiences?
Torosian: “I never really get to enjoy [the Boston Marathon] because I always end up working the fire station, but fun times, the Marathon. Everything’s fun. I mean, Polyarts. I was here for both the 275th and the 300th town anniversaries. Man, to see the town come out for that was amazing. Those will always top my list.”

HI: If you could change anything about Hopkinton, what would it be?
Torosian: “Well, of course everyone wants to change the traffic, which it took a virus to do right now. Would I change anything? Well, you see, we grew so fast that we became a little bit more reactionary than planning — like the schools, we’re going through a process with the school growth, and we’ve got to put the modules back on and we’ve had modules down at Elmwood School, and now we’re adding more modules there and we’re adding more modules to Hopkins. We had to do the addition to the Marathon School even before it opened! I think what happened was they were stuck with their decisions [and said], ‘Oh, we can only build out so far,’ and instead of spending that little bit extra building out further instead of scrambling later. I’m not going to say I wanted to see the growth slow down. I just wish we were ahead of the growth instead of growing with it.”

Editor’s note: This story appears in the April 22 print edition of the Hopkinton Independent.